Australian Road Safety Foundation Local Government Programs Award Winner 2024

12 Sep 2024

Campbelltown City Council Road Safety Officer David Behrens accepting the award. Image reference

Congratulations on the award!

Australian Road Safety Foundation's annual Australian Road Safety Awards recognise the dedication and achievements of individuals and organisations working to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities on our roads, recognising excellence for outstanding contributions in nine areas, including local and state governments.

This year, Campbelltown City Council won the Local Government Programs Award for the their involvement in the Child Restraints Diversion Pilot Program. This award category acknowledges local initiatives that demonstrate best practice and showcase local government innovation in promoting road safety to their communities.

About the project

The Child Restraints Diversion Pilot program is a Revenue NSW led project partnering with Campbelltown City Council, NSW Police Highway Patrol (Macarthur Cluster), and Transport for NSW. The project was also piloted in other local government areas.

The Child Restraints Diversion Pilot program focused on determining whether raising awareness through education or implementing stricter enforcement measures is more effective in encouraging compliance with child restraint laws, ultimately aiming to improve child safety on the roads.

Addressing the issue

The principle of the program was that under a set criteria, a Highway Patrol Officer would offer a driver detected with a child restraint offence, the option to get the child restraint properly fitted to the vehicle or appropriately adjusted for the child, instead of receiving an on-the-spot infringement notice.

The program evaluated the effectiveness of the intervention versus enforcement for child restraint offences, based on the concept that issuing an infringement notice to a driver for offences involving child restraints doesn’t directly enhance the child’s road safety outcomes if the driver or family did not understand how to correctly install, use or have the means to purchase a child restraint.

The project applied a Safe System approach:

Safe vehicles

Ensure the appropriate child restraint for the child’s size and age is used.
Ensure restraints are correctly fitted and appropriate for the child’s age and size.
Increase the number of properly installed and used restraints to reduce injuries in the event of a crash.

Safe people

Influence road user behaviour to comply with occupant restraint laws.
Educate road users on correct equipment, installation and use of child restraints.

Outcome

The program was well received by the community and demonstrated that enforcement activities don’t always produce a direct road safety outcome and aren’t the only way for police to perform their duties.

The program shifted the focus from punishing the driver to educating and ensuring the safety of the child. The cost of correcting the installation or purchasing a more appropriate child restraint was offset by downgrading the infringement notice to a caution and avoiding 3 demerit points per offence which would have been added to the driver’s licence.

During the Campbelltown trial period, 68 vouchers were issued to drivers. Of these, 60 vouchers were redeemed within the prescribed period. In addition, none of the drivers have been detected committing a subsequent offence. Of great note is that one vehicle involved in the program was subsequently involved in a serious crash resulting in no injuries to the two (now correctly restrained) children.

The project is great example of how stakeholders can work together to address road trauma in local communities. An integral component of the success of this project was the involvement of Local Government. The ability of local government to be reactive and partner with internal and external groups is a testament to level of government that is closest to its residents. The support provided by Campbelltown City Council to this project, ensured probity, financial accountability and that the pilot was appropriately resourced.

Campbelltown City Council is enthusiastic about the prospect for this pilot to be implemented statewide by Revenue NSW, as it will help reduce fatal and serious injury crashes involving children across NSW.