Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2440/77179
Type: Conference paper
Title: Risky behaviours: preferable to crashes for evaluating road safety mass media campaigns?
Author: Wundersitz, L.
Hutchinson, T.
Citation: Proceedings of the 2012 ACRS National Conference -a Safe System: Expanding the Reach, held in Sydney, 9-10 August, 2012: pp.1-13
Publisher: Australasian College of Road Safety
Publisher Place: online
Issue Date: 2012
Conference Name: ACRS 2012
Statement of
Responsibility: 
L.N. Wundersitz and T.P. Hutchinson
Abstract: Decades of research have failed to establish whether or not mass media advertising can reduce road crashes. The probable reason is that the random variability in crash numbers is too great (and, campaigns being very cheap per person reached, even low effectiveness may be enough to be worthwhile). Three alternatives to before-after comparison of crashes as the method of determining effectiveness of an intervention are discussed. These are real-world experiments of high methodological quality, laboratory experiments of the social psychological type, and the measurement of safety-related behaviors. The third of these, before-after comparison of behaviors or variables that can be objectively observed and are closely linked to safety, is suggested as the most promising. However, the behaviors that might plausibly be used as proxies for crashes are quite few in number, and there is an urgent research need to find more of them, together with theory implying that a change in the behavior does indeed mean a change in safety.
Keywords: Media campaigns
advertising effectiveness
safety promotion
road safety campaigns
accident numbers (variability)
Rights: Copyright status unknown
Description (link): http://acrs.org.au/events/acrs-past-conferences/2012-acrs-conference/program/papers/
Appears in Collections:Aurora harvest 4
Centre for Automotive Safety Research publications

Files in This Item:
There are no files associated with this item.


Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.