Understanding worker perceptions of common incidents at roadworks in Queensland

The process of building safer roads and roadsides needs to be managed to minimise risks to both the road using public and roadworkers. However, detailed and accurate data on fatalities and injuries at roadworks across Australia are not available. The lack of reliable safety records and consequent poor understanding of the hazards at roadworks motivated this research to examine the common trends in incidents and to understand workers' perceptions of the causes of incidents at roadworks. To achieve these aims, 66 roadworks personnel were interviewed in Queensland including road construction workers, traffic controllers, engineers, and managers. Qualitative analyses identified several major issues and themes. Vehicles driving into work areas, traffic controllers hit by vehicles, rear end crashes at roadwork approaches, and reversing incidents involving work vehicles and machinery were the most common types of incidents. Roadworkers perceived driver errors, such as violation of speed limits, distracted driving, and ignoring signage and traffic controllers' instructions as the main causes of the incidents.

SettleMEN-2: Displaced twice? Impact of the Queensland floods on men from refugee backgrounds living in Brisbane and Toowoomba. Broadsheet No. 1: Exposure to and impact of the floods

Between 2008 and 2010, the SettleMEN study followed a group of 233 recently arrived men from refugee backgrounds living in urban and regional Southeast Queensland with the aim of documenting their health and settlement experiences. The study found that overall, these men bring important resources that may help them to cope better with the challenges of settlement: good levels of subjective health status, mental health and wellbeing; good family and social support; and good levels of engagement in tertiary/trade education in Australia. Over time, however, their levels of wellbeing decreased as they experienced barriers to social participation and inclusion within their host community, including: unemployment and difficulties securing good jobs (even for those with tertiary/trade qualifications obtained in Australia), financial stress, difficulties accessing housing, limited interactions with neighbours, and experiences of racism and discrimination. Importantly, although men living in the Toowoomba acknowledged some of the benefits of regional settlement, they faced greater barriers to participation in the labour market, reported lower job satisfaction, and were more likely to experience social exclusion overall. In 2012 method approach and a peer interviewer model, we were able to conduct a follow 141 (61%) of the original 233 SettleMEN participants to document the impact of the January 2011 Queensland floods on their health and settlement. This broadsheet focuses on participants’ degree of exposure to and impact of the floods, their perceptions of safety and security, and their vulnerability and adaptive capacity to extreme weather events.

Alcohol restrictions and drink driving in remote Indigenous communities in Queensland, Australia

Alcohol restrictions have been implemented in many Indigenous communities internationally, with the aim to reduce alcohol-related harm. Whilst a range of reviews have evaluated such restrictions using different measures, drink driving has been described in several reviews as increasing. Presently, this remains anecdotal; with limited empirical evidence to corroborate these reports. In Australia, the Queensland government introduced alcohol management plans in remote Indigenous communities, during 2002-2003, with total alcohol prohibition commencing in 2008 in some communities. Given road crashes are one of the leading causes of injuries for Indigenous peoples, this study aims to identify if the restrictions have been successful in reducing drink driving or have increased such behaviour. We examine this by reviewing changes in conviction rates and in offender and offence characteristics following the 2008 restrictions. Using de-identified Queensland court drink driving conviction data (2006-2011), from four Indigenous communities, Robust Poisson regression models compared counts of drink driving convictions pre (2006-2008) versus post SRS (2009-2011). Changes in offender characteristics and conviction details (blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and sentencing severity), were examined using chi-squares. Results indicate a decline in convictions after the 2008 SRS in three communities. However, a significant increase in convictions was identified in one study community. Community-level disparity included significant decline in BAC in one community (χ 2=5.58, p=0.02) compared with the three other communities that did not indicate change and a significant increase the number of women convicted in two communities (χ 2=17.36, p<0.01; χ 2=5.79, p=0.04). Alcohol restrictions may have important implications in road safety with these reductions in convictions and BAC in some communities. However, an increase in the number of women convicted and limited changes in BAC for other communities demonstrate the complex relationship between alcohol use, remoteness and driving. Greater focus on demand reduction strategies may be necessary to address alcohol misuse.

Prevalence and characteristics of Indigenous drink-driving convictions in Queensland, Australia

Alcohol-involved accidents are one of the leading contributors towards high injury rates among Indigenous Australians. However, there is limited information available to inform existing policies to change current rates. The study aims to provide information about the prevalence and the characteristics of such behaviour. Drink driving convictions from 2006-2010 were extracted from the Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney General database. Convictions were regrouped by gender, age, Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia classification (using court location) and sentence severity. A number of cross tabulations were carried out to identify relationships between variables. Standardised adjusted residuals were calculated for each cell in order to determine cell differences that contributed to the chi-square test results. Analysis revealed there were 9,323 convictions, of which the majority were for offences by males (77.5%). In relation to age, 52.6% of the convictions were of persons under 25 years of age. Age was significantly different across the five regions for males only (χ2=90.8, p<0.001), with a larger number of convictions in the ‘very remote’ region of persons over 40+ years of age. Increased remoteness was linked with high range BAC convictions for both males (χ2=168.4, p<0.001) and females (χ2=22.5, p=0.004). Monetary penalties were the primary sentence received for both males and females in all regions. The findings identify the Indigenous drink driving conviction rate to be 6 times that of the general Queensland rate and indicate that a multipronged approach is needed, with tailored strategies for remote offenders, young adults and offenders with alcohol misuse and dependency issues. Further attention is warranted in this area of road safety.