CURBSIDE ASSISTANCE

In 2006 the NRMA ran a campaign to attract young drivers as members. They offered one year free roadside assistance to all drivers under 21 years of age. This campaign was in response to a survey which found that almost one-in-five young drivers were worried about their cars breaking down.

The NRMA statistics also showed that 40% of young drivers had, in fact, at some stage broken down. Of those surveyed one in four had broken down on the way to a date, and that in many cases their date had not been impressed and wouldn't accept car trouble as a suitable excuse for being late. One in ten of those surveyed said that at some stage they had broken down on the way to a job interview and two thirds of these claimed it had had a negative impact on them getting the job. Almost one-in-five said they had broken down on the way to an exam.

Only 67% of these young drivers surveyed said they could rely on family or friends to help in the case of needing roadside assistance. The NRMA were concerned that there was a real safety issue when young people broke down and were left stranded. They hoped by providing free roadside assistance young people in trouble could call on one of their patrols for help.

Patrolman Matt Nesbit does running repairs on a motorised scooter at Crow's Nest in Sydney.

In 2010 it would seem the NRMA are targeting a different membership group. I recently observed an NRMA patrolman giving assistance to an elderly community member when their motorised scooter broke down. Patrolman, Matt Nesbit said this was now not an uncommon event.

The NRMA Motoring Blog refers to an interesting study done by Monash University. This study investigated the relationship between car colour and crash risk. The Monash study used statistics from two Australian states, Western Australia and Victoria. The study took into account driver demographics, light conditions at the time of the crash, vehicle type, crash severity and state of the road.

Earlier studies mentioned on the NRMA site found that white and yellow cars had a slightly lower risk of being involved in a crash (2002) and that silver cars were 50% less likely to be involved in a crash than white cars (2003). These findings may have been inconclusive as not all factors surrounding the crash were taken into account.

The Monash study concluded that compared to white coloured cars, black, blue, grey, green and red coloured cars had a higher crash risk in daylight hours. The fact that colours were less distinguishable and that headlights tended to negate car colour after dark made the difference statistically negligible. The Monash study further concluded that cars which were of a less visible colour had a higher risk of more severe crashes.

A spokesman from the RTA commenting on the study pointed out that while the results may be useful, other factors were more influential on crash risk. He emphasised driving within the speed limit, not driving after drinking and not driving when tired.

(None of the studies seemed to comment on the fact that red cars go faster and this may influence their performance as a crash risk!)

A growing problem in accident risk is the use of mobile phones. Research has found that driver reaction times are significantly reduced when a person is talking on a mobile phone (by as much as 35%) and even more when texting. Some reports have suggested that a driver who has been drinking has less chance of a crash than a driver using a mobile phone. A recent survey by Telstra revealed over a third of motorists admitted to reading or sending texts while driving. Some 30% of respondents in the survey also admitted to speaking for one to two minutes on their hand-held phones while driving. Around 46% of women admitted to talking on the phone while driving as compared to 28% of men.

However it is young inexperienced drivers who are of most concern. One report found only 28% of young drivers thought that using a mobile phone while driving was dangerous. Another Monash University study stated "The research found that when driving and sending messages at the same time, young drivers would veer out of their lane 63% more frequently. Think what would result if this happened on the Sydney Harbour Bridge". As it so happens I have seen a young driver texting and veer across two lanes on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.....fortunately it was at 4.30 in the morning and there was little traffic. At other times I have seen texting drivers go up onto the medium strip, and I frequently see drivers miss light changes because they are texting and not watching the road.

However to be fair to younger drivers, another source of driver distraction identified in surveys is children. An NRMA survey in 2005 claimed three out of five drivers have taken their eyes off the road to deal with children. Nearly one in five were guilty of swerving out of their lane due to being distracted by children. It seems fighting siblings(83%) and children interfering with the driver to be the main distractions. Fifty percent of drivers surveyed said they had at some stage stopped the car because they had been so distracted by children. In my family we always just threatened to stop the car, saying "you can walk from here", but I don't ever remember it happening.

An obvious victim of using a mobile phone while driving?

The NRMA Open Road website had the following tips to help drivers being distracted while driving:
*Keep children occupied with toys, tapes etc. and stopping regularly so they (and you) can let off steam;
*Let your phone go to voice mail. Pull over to make or answer a call or retrieve a message. And NEVER send an SMS while driving.

One final observation. I have always been in the habit of stopping to help a driver who is broken down or has a flat tyre.....it is the custom in the country. However these days it has become less common. Part of this may be because you are now never sure if people are broken down or have just stopped to make a phone call. I have twice now stopped to help cars which I thought were broken down(in particular one was stopped in a place you would only stop if the car did break down) only to find that they were simply using their phone.