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Through a reform implemented in Sweden, September 1993, the age limit for practising car driving was lowered from 17 1/2 to 16 years while the licensing age remained 18. The purpose of lowering the age limit was to give the learner drivers an opportunity to acquire more experience as drivers before being allowed to drive on their own. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the reform in terms of accident involvement and data were therefore obtained from the national register of police reported accidents. The results show that after the reform there was a general reduction in the accident risk (accidents per 10 million km) of novice drivers with approximately 15%. Additional analyses show that the reduction of accident risk in the group who utilised the new age limit was approximately 40%, whereas those who did not utilise the prolonged training period did not benefit at all. Between 45 and 50% of the age population were found to utilise the reform. The accident reduction does not seem to be just an initial first year effect since the results were similar over 3 years of novice drivers during their first 2 years with a licence. These results suggest that the reform has been beneficial for the safety of novice drivers in Sweden. The results also suggest a potential for additional safety improvements if more young learner drivers can be brought to utilise the low age limit.

Every year, drivers throughout the world are killed or injured in road traffic. Young drivers run a greater risk everywhere, and this problem is still largely unsolved. Better understanding of the underlying processes could, however, be a useful tool in preventive endeavours. To change a young driver’s goals behind driving and the context in which it is done, a variety of different methods of persuasion should be tested. Both “soft” and “hard” methods should be used. For example, communication and increased enforcement may be used simultaneously. Communication campaigns should highlight the dangers of unsafe behaviour and in particular target young males. Communication campaigns that employ persuasive, emotional messages are most effective where young drivers are concerned. Research shows that attitudes about safety are formed at an early age, long before legal driving, and therefore it would also be important to target young adolescents. Laws need enforcement to be effective and should target areas of particular risk to young drivers. Driver education or communication campaigns cannot be expected to radically change a young person’s life goals. For that purpose, active learning methods that make use of the learner’s own experiences have to be applied. Special courses for young drivers designed to make individuals conscious of their personal tendencies and the type of social context that affects their driving behaviour could be helpful, whether offered via the ordinary school system or at driving schools.

a b s t r a c tOver the past decades, road safety in highly-motorised countries has made significant progress. Although we have a fair understanding of the reasons for this progress, we don't have conclusive evidence for this. A new generation of road safety management approaches has entered road safety, starting when countries decided to guide themselves by setting quantitative targets (e.g. 50% less casualties in ten years' time). Setting realistic targets, designing strategies and action plans to achieve these targets and monitoring progress have resulted in more scientific research to support decision-making on these topics. Three subjects are key in this new approach of evidence-based and data-driven road safety management: ex-post and ex-ante evaluation of both individual interventions and intervention packages in road safety strategies, and transferability (external validity) of the research results. In this article, we explore these subjects based on recent experiences in four jurisdictions (Western Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland). All four apply similar approaches and tools; differences are considered marginal. It is concluded that policy-making and political decisions were influenced to a great extent by the results of analysis and research. Nevertheless, to compensate for a relatively weak theoretical basis and to improve the power of this new approach, a number of issues will need further research. This includes ex-post and ex-ante evaluation, a better understanding of extrapolation of historical trends and the transferability of research results. This new approach cannot be realized without high-quality road safety data. Good data and knowledge are indispensable for this new and very promising approach.

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Purpose The impact of road traffic crashes on health is well developed, in terms of deaths and direct consequences, but it is less so in terms of long-term life consequences. Few studies have compared the general impact on Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) following road traffic injury (RTI) by using a variety of different injured body parts and severity levels of the injury and compared them with a sample of non-injured referent individuals. Consequently, the aim of the current study is to assess how injury severity is associated with HRQoL, and if it differs between men, women, over age and injured body parts. Methods This cross-sectional study identified people with a RTI in the Swedish Traffic Accident Data Acquisition System (STRADA). A frequency matched reference group was also included. Data include both register data and self-reported HRQoL data. Results A total of 1788 out of 4761 persons with an RTI (37.6%) and 2186 out of 4761 reference persons (45.9%) returned the questionnaire, giving a total response rate of 41.9% (n = 3974). The findings show different patterns of HRQoL loss, depending on sex, age, injured body part, and levels of injury severity. Conclusion The results show that even relatively minor road traffic injuries can lead to a significantly lower of HRQoL, especially for women, compared to the non-injured reference group. Moreover, when the inherent reduction of HRQoL over age was considered, the results indicated that younger individuals have a larger difference from the reference group in HRQoL, independent of the injury severity, compared to the older individuals; hence, an improved understanding of age and gender differences in HRQoL following an RTI is needed to better understand the long-term consequences of injuries from a public health perspective.

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These differences emphasise the importance of considering gender-specific physical and psychological consequences following an RTI.