Road Safety Education in Schools: What to Do, What Not to Do

Australasian jurisdictions remain committed to school-based road safety education programs in both the primary and secondary sectors. Despite the absence of outcome evaluations demonstrating that these programs are responsible for reductions in road trauma, they continue to occupy substantial amounts of curriculum time and new programs continue to be developed. Whilst the difficulties of conducting outcome evaluations appear daunting, the magnitude of the investment in such programs implies a responsibility to ensure, at the very least, that that program content is based on sound road safety principles and the methods used are based on sound educational principles and delivery practices.

Austroads commissioned ARRB Transport Research Ltd to develop road safety content and educational methodology check lists for school-based road safety education programs and to use these check lists as the basis of a detailed audit of selected programs operating in Australasian jurisdictions. The development of the check lists was based on reviews of research on road safety and education and on a review of current school road safety education programs in Australia and New Zealand.

The paper describes the development of the check lists for road safety content and educational delivery practices. It also presents the major recommendations of the check lists regardng the content and delivery of school road safety education programs.

The Austroads School Road Safety Education Check List can be used to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a school road safety education program in terms of its road safety content and the educational methods used to deliver the program. This information can be used to determine whether the program is suitable for a particular purpose and target audience. It can also be used to determine whether partial or complete redevelopment of the program may be required to correct the identified weaknesses.