Vulnerability, insurance and policy: The learner driver's standard of care

In Cook v Cook the Australian High Court held that the standard of reasonable care owed by a learner driver to an instructor, conscious of the driver’s lack of experience, was lower than that owed to other passengers and road users. Recently, in Imbree v McNeilly, the High Court declined to follow this principle, concluding that the driver’s status or relationship with the claimant should no longer influence or alter the standard of care owed. The decision therefore provides an opportunity to re-examine the rationale and policy behind current jurisprudence governing the standard of care owed by learner drivers. In doing so, this article considers the principles relevant to determining the standard and Imbree’s implications for other areas of tort law and claimant v defendant relationships. It argues that Imbree was influenced by changing judicial perceptions concerning the vulnerability of driving instructors and the relevance of insurance to tortious liability.

The psychological distress of the young driver : a brief report

Objective: To explore the role of psychological distress in the self-reported risky driving of young novice drivers. Design: Cross-sectional online survey of 761 tertiary students aged 17-25 years with an intermediate (Provisional) driving licence who completed Kessler’s Psychological Distress Scale and the Behaviour of Young Novice Drivers Scale. Setting: Queensland, Australia, August-October 2009. Main outcome measures: Psychological distress, risky driving. Results: Regression analyses revealed that psychological distress uniquely explained 8.5% of the variance in young novice’s risky driving, with adolescents experiencing psychological distress also reporting higher levels of risky driving. Psychological distress uniquely explained a significant 6.7% and 9.5% of variance in risky driving for males and females respectively. Conclusions: Medical practitioners treating adolescents who have been injured through risky behaviour need to aware of the potential contribution of psychological distress, whilst mental health professionals working with adolescents experiencing psychological distress need to be aware of this additional source of potential harm. The nature of the causal relationships linking psychological distress and risky driving behaviour are not yet fully understood, indicating a need for further research so that strategies such as screening can be investigated.

How consistent are drivers in their driving? A driver training perspective

The value and effectiveness of driver training as a means of improving driver behaviour and road safety continues to fuel research and societal debates. Knowledge about what are the characteristics of safe driving that need to be learnt is extensive. Research has shown that young drivers are over represented in crash statistics. The encouraging fact is that novice drivers have shown improvement in road scanning pattern after training. This paper presents a driver behaviour study conducted on a closed circuit track. A group of experienced and novice drivers performed repeated multiple manoeuvres (i.e. turn, overtake and lane change) under identical conditions Variables related to the driver, vehicle and environment were recorded in a research vehicle equipped with multiple in-vehicle sensors such as GPS accelerometers, vision processing, eye tracker and laser scanner. Each group exhibited consistently a set of driving pattern characterising a particular group. Behaviour such as the indicator usage before lane change, following distance while performing a manoeuvre were among the consistent observed behaviour differentiating novice from experienced drivers. This paper will highlight the results of our study and emphasize the need for effective driver training programs focusing on young and novice drivers.

“Teaching them a lesson?” : a qualitative exploration of underlying motivations for driver aggression

Aggressive driving is increasingly a concern for drivers in highly motorised countries. However, the role of driver intent in this behaviour is problematic and there is little research on driver cognitions in relation to aggressive driving incidents. In addition, while drivers who admit to behaving aggressively on the road also frequently report being recipients of similar behaviours, little is known about the relationship between perpetration and victimisation or about how road incidents escalate into the more serious events that feature in capture media attention. The current study used qualitative interviews to explore driver cognitions and underlying motivations for aggressive behaviours on the road. A total of 30 drivers aged 18-49 years were interviewed about their experiences with aggressive driving. A key theme identified in responses was driver aggression as an attempt to manage or modify the behaviour of other road users. Two subthemes were identified and appeared related to separate motivations for aggressive responses: ‘teaching them a lesson’ referred to situations where respondents intended to convey criticism or disapproval, usually of unintended behaviours by the other driver, and thus encourage self-correction; and ‘justified retaliation’ which referred to situations where respondents perceived deliberate intent on the part of the other driver and responded aggressively in return. Mildly aggressive driver behaviour appears to be common. Moreover such behaviour has a sufficiently negative impact on other drivers that it may be worth addressing because of its potential for triggering retaliation in kind or escalation of aggression, thus compromising safety.

Vector quantization based Gaussian modeling for speaker verification

Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) have become an established means of modeling feature distributions in speaker recognition systems. It is useful for experimentation and practical implementation purposes to develop and test these models in an efficient manner particularly when computational resources are limited. A method of combining vector quantization (VQ) with single multi-dimensional Gaussians is proposed to rapidly generate a robust model approximation to the Gaussian mixture model. A fast method of testing these systems is also proposed and implemented. Results on the NIST 1996 Speaker Recognition Database suggest comparable and in some cases an improved verification performance to the traditional GMM based analysis scheme. In addition, previous research for the task of speaker identification indicated a similar system perfomance between the VQ Gaussian based technique and GMMs

Robust speaker verification via fusion of speech and lip modalities

This paper investigates the use of lip information, in conjunction with speech information, for robust speaker verification in the presence of background noise. It has been previously shown in our own work, and in the work of others, that features extracted from a speaker's moving lips hold speaker dependencies which are complementary with speech features. We demonstrate that the fusion of lip and speech information allows for a highly robust speaker verification system which outperforms the performance of either sub-system. We present a new technique for determining the weighting to be applied to each modality so as to optimize the performance of the fused system. Given a correct weighting, lip information is shown to be highly effective for reducing the false acceptance and false rejection error rates in the presence of background noise

The use of speech and lip modalities for robust speaker verification under adverse conditions

Investigates the use of lip information, in conjunction with speech information, for robust speaker verification in the presence of background noise. We have previously shown (Int. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Proc., vol. 6, pp. 3693-3696, May 1998) that features extracted from a speaker's moving lips hold speaker dependencies which are complementary with speech features. We demonstrate that the fusion of lip and speech information allows for a highly robust speaker verification system which outperforms either subsystem individually. We present a new technique for determining the weighting to be applied to each modality so as to optimize the performance of the fused system. Given a correct weighting, lip information is shown to be highly effective for reducing the false acceptance and false rejection error rates in the presence of background noise

Measuring driver responses at railway level crossings

Railway level crossings are amongst the most complex of road safety control systems, due to the conflicts between road vehicles and rail infrastructure, trains and train operations. Driver behaviour at railway crossings is the major collision factor. The main objective of the present paper was to evaluate the existing conventional warning devices in relation to driver behaviour. The common conventional warning devices in Australia are a stop sign (passive), flashing lights and a half boom-barrier with flashing lights (active). The data were collected using two approaches, namely: field video recordings at selected sites and a driving simulator in a laboratory. This paper describes and compares the driver response results from both the field survey and the driving simulator. The conclusion drawn is that different types of warning systems resulted in varying driver responses at crossings. The results showed that on average driver responses to passive crossings were poor when compared to active ones. The field results were consistent with the simulator results for the existing conventional warning devices and hence they may be used to calibrate the simulator for further evaluation of alternative warning systems.

Private supervisors of learner drivers and Queensland's graduated driver licensing system : how important are they?

Background: A key element of graduated driver licensing systems is the level of support provided by parents. In mid-2007 changes were made to Queensland’s graduated driver licensing system, including amendments to the learner licence with one of the more significant changes requiring learners to record 100 hours of supervised driving practice in a logbook. Prior to mid-2007, there was no minimum supervision requirement. Aims: The aim of this study was to document the experiences of the supervisors of Queensland learner drivers after the changes made to the graduated driver licensing system in mid-2007. Methods: The sample of 552 supervisors of learner drivers was recruited using a combination of convenience and snowball sampling techniques. The internet survey was open for completion between July 2009 and May 2010 and took approximately 15 to 20 minutes for participants to complete. Results: For 59.7 per cent of the participants, this was the first time that they had supervised a learner driver. For 63.2 per cent, they classified themselves as the main supervisor for the learner driver. Participants provided an average of 79.62 hours of supervision (sd = 92.38), while other private supervisors provided 34.89 hours of supervision (sd = 41.74) to the same learner and professional driving instructors 18.55 hours of supervision (sd = 27.54). The vast majority of supervisors recorded all or most of the practice that they provided their learner driver in their log book with most supervisors indicating that they believed that the hours recorded in the learner’s logbook were either accurate or very accurate. While many supervisors stated that they did not receive any advice regarding the supervision of learner drivers, some had received advice from others such as friends or through discussions with a professional driving instructor. Discussion and conclusions: While graduated driver licensing systems implicitly encourage the involvement of parents and other private supervisors, these people tend not to be systematically involved. As demonstrated in this study, private supervisors provide a significant amount of supervised practice and seek to record this practice accurately and honestly in the learner’s logbook. However, even though a significant number of participants reported that this was the first time that they had supervised a learner driver, they accessed little support or guidance for their role. This suggests a need to more overtly encourage and support the role of private supervisors for learner drivers.

The development of Monte Carlo techniques for the verification of radiotherapy treatments

Radiotherapy is a cancer treatment modality in which a dose of ionising radiation is delivered to a tumour. The accurate calculation of the dose to the patient is very important in the design of an effective therapeutic strategy. This study aimed to systematically examine the accuracy of the radiotherapy dose calculations performed by clinical treatment planning systems by comparison againstMonte Carlo simulations of the treatment delivery. A suite of software tools known as MCDTK (Monte Carlo DICOM ToolKit) was developed for this purpose, and is capable of: • Importing DICOM-format radiotherapy treatment plans and producing Monte Carlo simulation input files (allowing simple simulation of complex treatments), and calibrating the results; • Analysing the predicted doses of and deviations between the Monte Carlo simulation results and treatment planning system calculations in regions of interest (tumours and organs-at-risk) and generating dose-volume histograms, so that conformity with dose prescriptions can be evaluated. The code has been tested against various treatment planning systems, linear acceleratormodels and treatment complexities. Six clinical head and neck cancer treatments were simulated and the results analysed using this software. The deviations were greatest where the treatment volume encompassed tissues on both sides of an air cavity. This was likely due to the method the planning system used to model low density media.

Chinese driver perceptions about speeding and traffic law enforcement

The World Health Organisation has highlighted the urgent need to address the escalating global public health crisis associated with road trauma. Low-income and middle-income countries bear the brunt of this, and rapid increases in private vehicle ownership in these nations present new challenges to authorities, citizens, and researchers alike. The role of human factors in the road safety equation is high. In China, human factors have been implicated in more than 90% of road crashes, with speeding identified as the primary cause (Wang, 2003). However, research investigating the factors that influence driving speeds in China is lacking (WHO, 2004). To help address this gap, we present qualitative findings from group interviews conducted with 35 Beijing car drivers in 2008. Some themes arising from data analysis showed strong similarities with findings from highly-motorised nations (e.g., UK, USA, and Australia) and include issues such as driver definitions of ‘speeding’ that appear to be aligned with legislative enforcement tolerances, factors relating to ease/difficulty of speed limit compliance, and the modifying influence of speed cameras. However, unique differences were evident, some of which, to our knowledge, are previously unreported in research literature. Themes included issues relating to an expressed lack of understanding about why speed limits are necessary and a perceived lack of transparency in traffic law enforcement and use of associated revenue. The perception of an unfair system seemed related to issues such as differential treatment of certain drivers and the large amount of individual discretion available to traffic police when administering sanctions. Additionally, a wide range of strategies to overtly avoid detection for speeding and/or the associated sanctions were reported. These strategies included the use of in-vehicle speed camera detectors, covering or removing vehicle licence number plates, and using personal networks of influential people to reduce or cancel a sanction. These findings have implications for traffic law, law enforcement, driver training, and public education in China. While not representative of all Beijing drivers, we believe that these research findings offer unique insights into driver behaviour in China.