A priority focus area for the Road Safety Research Program is ‘distracted driving’.
Distracted driving plays a large role in the number of road crashes and subsequent road fatalities and injuries in Australia and globally. Research has shown that in Australia, distraction is the main contributing factor in approximately 16% of serious casualty road crashes and also suggests that distracted driving is as dangerous, if not more dangerous than drink driving. It is a serious problem on Australian roads.
Driver distraction can be understood as any circumstance where the driver is diverting attention away from critical activities for safe driving towards another competing activity. Distraction can be cognitive or mental (the mind is engaged with non-driving related tasks), visual (taking eyes of the road), auditory (noise that diverts attention), or manual (taking hands off the vehicle controls).
Distraction causes increased reaction time (including braking), impairs a driver’s ability to maintain speed and lane position, and impacts the operational efficiency of traffic, bringing with it the potential to seriously and negatively impact a broad range of road users.
The AAA Road Safety Research Program is funding research that will help us to better understand the scope of the problem, understand what causes distraction, what countermeasures are effective and innovative solutions to tackle this serious road safety problem.
The AAA has funded three research projects focused on distracted driving. The projects were once again developed following stakeholder consultation.
Distracted driving literature review
To support the AAA Road Safety Research Program’s research into distracted driving, the AAA commissioned a foundational piece of work to scope the distracted driving literature and policy landscape/s that consider the following key themes related to distracted driving: Human behaviour, policy and regulation, technology, and legal, enforcement and compliance frameworks.
The literature review included a thematic review of the international literature as well as:
The AAA awarded this piece of work to the Griffith Criminology Institute at Griffith University. The team consisted of Dr Lyndel Bates, Margo Van Felius and Marina Alexander. The final report was professional, thorough, and comprehensively synthesised the distracted driving literature and current policy landscape.
Development of a toolkit to assess driver distractibility
To allow the assessment and development of novel interventions for distraction in road safety, this project is building a comprehensive system model. For the first time the model can identify all the potential influences on distracted driving.
This project looks beyond the traditional scope of education campaigns, engineering technology solutions and enforcement cameras (which have been only partially effective). The program considers wider influences such as alternative forms of transport or taxation policy, which may provide greater benefit to solving the issue of distracted driving.
The toolkit will allow policy makers, systems designers, app developers, regulators, road safety practitioners, fleet managers and consumer advocates to anticipate, understand, quantify, and manage distraction risks from future technologies, rather than react to safety problems after they arise from the deployment of technologies.
After a successful feasibility study, the major project is being formally undertaken by the University of Sunshine Coast under the leadership of Professor Paul Salmon.
The major project commenced in July 2022 and is expected to be finalised in June 2024.
Evaluation and comparison of the Human Machine Interface (HMI) in vehicles in the Australian Market
Modern vehicles contain a variety of technologies that provide the driver, through a Human Machine Interface (HMI), access to a wide range of entertainment, communication, information, and vehicle functions which are unrelated to the primary task of driving.
This project aims to develop a scientifically validated mechanism and methods that can be used to evaluate and compare the distractibility of the HMI in vehicles in the Australian market (both existing and future vehicles) in Australian conditions.
Following a successful feasibility study and pilot of testing protocols, the AAA is in partnership to undertake the project with:
The major project commenced in Quarter 1 2022-23 and is expected to be finalised in June 2025.