Alexia Lennon

Queensland Government · Queensland Corrective Services

A pre and post (1, 4, and 9–12 months follow up) survey of psychosocial variables was used to examine the effect of a compulsory pre-licence driver education program for drivers aged 16–20 years, in the Australian Capital Territory. While the final survey was collected by telephone, all other surveys were completed online. Two-way mixed ANOVAs reve...

Provisional (or intermediate) drivers do not always comply with graduated driver licensing restrictions and road laws. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of parenting style on young driver compliance with licensing restrictions. Two surveys, the first a sample of parents of provisionally licensed drivers (n = 101) from Queensland and t...

Third-party policing involves police partnering with other individuals or organisations in order to prevent or control crime and disorder. Given the high level of young driver crash rates and offences, an intervention based on third-party policing may reduce both. This study explored the feasibility of using this approach with parents, who would be...

This study explored whether a third party policing approach is appropriate for increasing young driver compliance with graduated driver licensing restrictions. Focus groups (n = 3) and semi-structured interviews (n = 24) were conducted with young drivers from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Participants (n = 39 in total) were aged 17 to 19 years a...

While evaluators can often access examples of complex evaluation frameworks and reports, detailed information about the processes used to develop these frameworks is less available. This article provides insight into the development of an evaluation framework for a whole-of-government multi-component reform program, being implemented by stakeholder...

Aggressive driving has been found to result in road collisions which are a major cause of injury, fatality and financial cost in motorised countries. Qualitative and survey based studies suggest that drivers use justifications or explanations of their aggressive driving that bear strong resemblance to Bandura's mechanisms of moral disengagement. Th...

Abstract

Background Road crossing is a complex activity and children’s risk of pedestrian crashes is greater due to their underdeveloped perceptual and cognitive skills. This project involved the design and evaluation of a child pedestrian safety campaign, guided by an Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour. The evaluated component consisted of a short (30 se...

Objective: This study investigates the prevalence and characteristics of first drink driving convictions among young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) Australians (aged from 14-24) and considers some of the risk factors associated with recidivism. Methods: Convictions recorded between 2006 and 2013 were extracted from the Queens...

The current study explored the influence of moral values (measured by ethical ideology) on self-reported driving anger and aggressive driving responses. A convenience sample of drivers aged 17–73 years (n = 280) in Queensland, Australia, completed a self-report survey. Measures included sensation seeking, trait aggression, driving anger, endorsemen...

Aggressive driving has been shown to be related to increased crash risk for car driving. However, less is known about aggressive behaviour and motorcycle riding and whether there are differences in on-road aggression as a function of vehicle type. If such differences exist, these could relate to differences in perceptions of relative vulnerability...

This paper reports results from a qualitative evaluation of a compulsory pre-Learner driver education program within the Australian Capital Territory(ACT), Australia. Two methods were used to obtain feedback from those involved in the delivery of the program as well as those who participated in programs. The first, semi-structured interviews, was u...

Objective: Relatively high rates of child restraint inappropriate use and misuse and faults in the installation of restraints have suggested a crucial need for public education messages to raise parental awareness of the need to use restraints correctly. This project involved the devising and pilot testing of message concepts, filming of a televis...

Driver cognitions about aggressive driving of others are potentially important to the development of evidence-based interventions. Previous research has suggested that perceptions that other drivers are intentionally aggressive may influence recipient driver anger and subsequent aggressive responses. Accordingly, recent research on aggressive drivi...

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 fr...

Road trauma is a leading cause of child injury worldwide. In highly motorized countries, injury as a passenger represents a major proportion of all child road deaths and hospitalizations. Australia is no exception, particularly because there are high levels of travel by private motor vehicle to school in most Australian states. Recently, the legisl...

Social harmony can manifest in many ways. In rapidly motorizing countries like China, a growing area of potential disharmony is road use. The increased ability to purchase a car for the first time and a subsequent increase in new drivers has seen several Chinese cities take unprecedented measures to manage congestion. There is a corresponding need...

With Australia‟s population rapidly ageing, older pedestrian safety has begun to receive greater attention from road safety researchers. However, reliance on simulator studies and observational techniques has limited current understanding of why older pedestrians adopt particular crossing behaviours, and how they perceive crossing the road. The cur...

Figure 1. Examples of restraints available on the Australian market and suitable for children under 4 years. Baby capsule (left) is mounted facing the rear of the vehicle and suits children from birth to approximately 6 months or 12 months old. Convertible (dual mode) child restraint (center). This restraint can be used with newborns in rear-facing...

Community beliefs related to intentional injury inflicted by others were examined in a population-based telephone survey (n = 1032) in Queensland, Australia. Young adults 18 to 24 years old were nominated as the most likely to be intentionally injured. It was found that 89.1% of respondents nominating this group believed that the injury incidents o...

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 be...

Driver aggression is an increasing concern for motorists, with some research suggesting that drivers who behave aggressively perceive their actions as justified by the poor driving of others. Thus attributions may play an important role in understanding driver aggression. A convenience sample of 193 drivers (aged 17–36) randomly assigned to two sep...

Public knowledge and beliefs about injury prevention are currently poorly understood. A total of 1030 residents in the State of Queensland, Australia, responded to questions about injury prevention in or around the home, on the roads, in or on the water, at work, deliberate injury and responsibility for preventing deliberate injury allowing for com...

Pedestrian and cyclist injuries are significant public health issues, together accounting for 11-30% of road deaths in highly motorised countries. Children are particularly at risk. In Australia in 2009 11.4% of pedestrian deaths and 6.4% of cyclist deaths comprised children aged 0-16 years. Parental attitudes and level of supervision are important...

China is one of Asia's many rapidly-motorising nations and recent increases in private-vehicle ownership have been coupled with an escalation in novice drivers. Several pieces of road safety legislation have been introduced in recent decades in China. While managing the legal aspects of road use is important, social influences on driver behaviour m...

Driver aggression is a road safety issue of growing concern throughout most highly motorised countries, yet to date there is no comprehensive model that deals with this issue in the road safety area. This paper sets out to examine the current state of research and theory on aggressive driving with a view to incorporating useful developments in the...

Injury to vulnerable road users is a significant public health issue world-wide, with pedestrians and cyclists accounting for 11 to 30% of road fatalities in highly motorised countries such as the US, UK and Australia. Children are particularly at risk due to their still-developing cognitive and perceptual abilities. In Australia, children aged 0–1...

New legislation requires all children 7 years and younger to use child-specific Australian Standards approved restraints suitable to their age and restricts seating young children in the front of cars. Observations of child seating position and restraint use were undertaken in Toowoomba and Rockhampton before the Queensland legislation was announce...

Correct use of child restraints reduces the risk of death and injury. Use of adult seat belts is better than being unrestrained but can result in injury to children who are too small. New Australian legislation extends the requirement for using child-specific restraints until children are 7 years old and thus requires more appropriate levels of pro...

Using only legal sanctions to manage the speed at which people drive ignores the potential benefits of harnessing social factors such as the influence of others. Social influences on driving speeds were explored in this qualitative examination of 67 Australian drivers. Focus group interviews with 8 driver types (young, mid-age and older males and f...

Injury is the fourth leading cause of death in Australia. Injury rates in Queensland are amongst the highest in Australia and 21.5% of people surveyed for this research reported that their lifestyle or that of an immediate family member had been permanently affected by injury. Injury results in over 40,000 hospital admissions and 200,000 attendance...

The most common daily trip for employed persons and students is the commute to and from work and/or place of study. Though there are clear environmental, health and safety benefits from using public transport instead of private vehicles for these trips, a high proportion of commuters still choose private vehicles to get to work or study. This study...

Despite increasingly sophisticated speed management strategies, speeding remains a significant contributing factor in 25% of Australia’s fatal crashes. Excessive speed is also a recognised contributor to road trauma in rapidly motorising countries such as China, where increases in vehicle ownership and new drivers, and a high proportion of vulnerab...

Research has highlighted the relationship between vehicle speed and increased crash risk and severity. Evidence suggests that police speed enforcement, in particular speed camera operations, can be an effective tool for reducing traffic crashes. A quantitative survey of Queensland drivers (n = 852) was conducted to investigate the impact of police...

Prior research has highlighted the relationship between speeding and increased frequency and severity of traffic crashes. There is evidence to suggest that police speed enforcement, in particular speed camera operations, can be an effective tool for reducing traffic crashes. This qualitative study used focus groups with Queensland drivers (n=39) to...

Despite the fact that safety organisations recommend that children travel in the rear seat, many children under 12 years in Australia occupy the front seats of cars when they travel. While there has been some research investigating situational factors that influence where children sit, little has been reported on the psychosocial influences on pare...

Road crashes are a significant cause of work-related injury and death. Driver fatigue is thought to cause 20–30% of fatal crashes. The current study utilised a survey to examine the relationship between safety climate, occupational stress and work-related driver fatigue. Drivers (n = 219) from two government organisations responded to items from th...

Car crashes are a major cause of death and serious injury to children but most analyses of risk are based on US data. The Australian context is different in at least three ways: (1) the proportion of passenger-side airbags, a potential risk to children in front seats, is much lower; (2) unlike in the US, Australian airbags are designed to work with...

There is growing evidence that children's protection as car passengers can be improved through both appropriate restraint use and through insisting that they travel in the rear seat rather than the front. However many children still travel in the front seats of cars in Australia and New Zealand. Encouraging parents to keep children in the rear seat...

Sitting in the rear seat of a vehicle rather than in the front seat reduces children's risk of injury or death by > or =35% in the event of a crash. As road trauma is a leading cause of child morbidity and mortality in highly motorised nations, even in countries where restraint use is high, encouraging parents to place children in the rear seats of...

Parent-reported and observed use of child restraints has increased in many countries in recent times and is high for children in Australia (>90%). However, many children are sub-optimally protected because the restraints they are using are too big for them. This study sought to explore possible reasons for this using a survey of parents and carers...

Speeding research indicates that many factors influence drivers’ speed choice. Much of the speeding literature has focused on those who speed. This is understandable, given the significant contribution of speeding to road trauma. As a result, we have some understanding of the motivations of speeding offenders. However, we know little about those wh...

Though there have been considerable reductions in child mortality and morbidity due to motor vehicle crashes in the past twenty years, road trauma is still a leading cause of death for children in motorised countries and thus an important health and safety issue in Australia. This review identifies key issues of child occupant protection such as th...

This paper examines normative influences on self-reported driving speeds of 160 male and 160 female Queensland drivers, aged 16-79 years. Previous research suggests a variety of ‘significant others’ can influence many road user behaviours, including driving speed. The presence of passengers, behaviour of other drivers, and attitudes of peers and re...

One simple, cost-effective action to improve children’s safety in cars is to restrain them in the rear seat whenever this is possible, as this has been shown to be about 35% safer than sitting in the front in the event of a crash. Moreover, seating position and restraint use have an interactive effect on safety: wearing a restraint and sitting in t...

The authors used a social identity perspective to explore young women's perceptions of smoking. They carried out 13 focus groups and 6 intercept interviews with women aged 16 to 28 years in regards to the social identities that might influence young women's smoking behavior. Three identities emerged: the cool smoker applied to the initiation of smo...

International research suggests that a large proportion of children travel in the front seat of passenger vehicles even though this places them at increased risk of serious injury or death. There are no comparable figures for Australia. This study was conducted to estimate the proportion of Australian children seated in the front seat of passenger...

Learning organizations are a special form of organization where enhancing learning is a strategy to increase intellectual capital. Developing learning organizations has become an imperative for many managers, since an organization's learning methods and rate may be the only source of sustainable competitive advantage. However, learning organization...

The increasing rate of change in business environments has generated an imperative for managers to create learning organisations. However, there is evidence to suggest that organisations have not taken up the challenge as widely as might be expected. One reason for this may be that managers understand learning organisations very differently from th...

Academics and practitioners have recently intensified the debate on the relevance or otherwise of organisational and management theory to actual practice in today's environment. A multidisciplinary team of five academics from three departments at the University of Southern Queensland has embarked upon a study to identify the major issues, perspecti...