Evaluation of the Type I Child Car Restraints Fitting Service in WA
Keywords: Child Restraints
ARSRPE
Submission Date: 2011
Abstract
Evaluation of the Type I Child Car Restraints Fitting Service in WA Alexia Lennon1, Narelle Haworth1, Simon Hood2 and Gareth Govan2 1Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety, Queensland (CARRS-Q) 2Quantum Consulting Services, WA. Child passenger injury remains a major road safety issue despite advances in biomechanical understanding and child restraint design. Child restraints play an important role in protecting children. In Australia, interventions with parents have aimed to improve awareness about child car safety issues, encourage universal and consistent use of the most appropriate restraint as well as draw parents’ attention to critical aspects of fitment or installation. One such intervention is the RoadWise Type 1 Child Car Restraints Fitting Service in Western Australia. This presentation reports the findings of a mixed methods, process and outcome evaluation of the Service, carried out in 2010. Results of the evaluation suggest that it has been effective in ensuring good quality training of child restraint fitters. In addition, stakeholder and user satisfaction with the Service is high, with participants in the evaluation agreeing that the service is valuable to the community. However, a continuing issue for interventions of this type is whether the parents who need them perceive this need and regard such services as relevant to them. Evidence from the evaluation suggests that reach remains problematic and may be partly due to low perceived need and/or relevance to self. Contributing factors and potential solutions are discussed