Canberra forum to focus on trauma free roads.

Reducing unnecessary deaths and injuries on our roads will be the focus of the largest road safety meeting in Australasia in September.

Over 600 road safety experts are now preparing for evidence based, cutting edge presentations, policy review, debate, and collaboration, as part of the largest road safety forum in the Southern Hemisphere – the Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC) – to be held from 6-8 September in Canberra, Australia.

With the theme of "Agility, Innovation, IMPACT", ARSC2016 will showcase the regions' outstanding researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and industry spanning the five pillars of road safety issues identified in the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety: Road Safety Management, Infrastructure, Safe Vehicles, User Behaviour, and Post-Crash Care. 

The preliminary scientific program has now been released and includes over 200 national and international keynote speaker presentations, oral and poster presentations, workshops and symposia showcasing the latest on key topics which include:

• Drink and drug driving
• Speed
• Crash testing and collision avoidance
• Policing and enforcement
• Safety technologies
• Fatigue
• Driver error and distraction
• Vulnerable road users - Young and older drivers, driving with a disability, child and pedestrian safety
• Heavy vehicles
• Cycling, quad bikes and motorcycle strategy and clothing
• Road environment and design, safety rating, and roadside barriers
• Post crash care
• Workplace safety on road and in-vehicle
• Safe systems management and community involvement
• Road safety advertising
• Education
• Crash data and innovative methods for data usage
• Evaluation
• Local, state, national and international issues and policies
• City and rural issues

High-profile speakers include:

• Dr Soames Job  – Global Road Safety Lead, World Bank (Washington DC)
• Dr Mary Lydon – Chief Scientific Advisor, ARRB
• Professor Mark Stevenson – Professor of Urban Transport and Public Health, University of Melbourne
• Dr Sarah Jones – Group Manager for Road Transport Compliance, Toll Group
• Assistant Commissioner John Hartley APM – Commander, NSW Traffic and Highway Patrol Command
• Mr Adrian Beresford-Wylie – Chief Executive Officer, Australian Local Government Association

Specialist symposia will focus on:

• The real cost of serious injury
• Autonomous, semi-autonomous and existing vehicles. What will be the impact on road safety results and when?
• How does road infrastructure integrity save lives?
• Safe system transformation for pedestrians
• Supporting organisations to encourage safe mobile phone use whilst driving
• Gruen Transfer: The road safety pitch: A fresh lens on road safety
• Building capacity for road safety and taking responsibility
• Driver licensing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples: Challenges and opportunities
• Australian road safety applied in low and middle-income countries
• Road safety’s family feud
• The MUARC TAC enhanced crash investigation study: Early findings from the case and control data

We will be honoured to have our Patron His Excellency Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC  – Governor-General of Australia  officiate at the Welcome Reception.

Lauchlan McIntosh, President of the Australasian College of Road Safety, said ARSC2016 will bring with it a special focus on how all stakeholders can become more agile to harness the latest research, technology and policy innovations to produce the best road trauma reduction outcomes possible.

“We aim to get our region’s road safety performance level back into the top ten in the world during the UN Decade for Action for Road Safety 2010-2020.

“ARSC2016 will be instrumental in this goal, bringing together policy-makers, researchers, enforcement agencies, educators and industry with a united focus to ensure we have commitment to a systems approach to reducing road trauma,” Mr McIntosh said.

ARSC2016 is expected to attract over 600 delegates including researchers, educators, policing and enforcement agencies, practitioners, policymakers, industry representatives, specialist equipment suppliers and students working in the fields of: behavioural science; education and training; emergency services; engineering and technology; health and rehabilitation; policing, justice and law enforcement; local, state and federal government; traffic management; and vehicle safety.

ARSC2016 is a joint venture initiative of the Australasian College of Road Safety, Austroads, and the George Institute for Global Health. 

For further information or to register, please visit www.australasianroadsafetyconference.com.au

Media enquiries: Judy Williams, ARSC2016 Sponsorship & Promotions Manager
Email: arscpromotions@acrs.org.au
Tel: 0400 782 204