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A new series of free public seminars will be run by the Centre for Automotive Safety Research. Full Image (65.58K)

Thursday, 30 April 2009

The fight to reduce road trauma will be the major focus of a new series of free public seminars starting this week at the University of Adelaide.

The University's Centre for Automotive Safety Research (CASR) will be conducting six seminars to address the major causes, investigative methods and solutions regarding road crashes.

CASR conducts research to understand the causes of road crashes and the resulting injuries, and proposes ways to prevent these traumas. It provides advice on road safety matters to government and non-government organisations.

The seminar series will start tomorrow (Friday 1 May) with a talk on "Older Drivers", presented by Dr Matthew Baldock, Research Fellow with CASR.

Dr Baldock will highlight the most recent research done on issues involving older drivers, especially on their safety and the rates of crash involvement. He will focus on measures that can be taken to increase older driver mobility while maintaining safety.

"Older drivers are overrepresented in crashes involving serious and fatal injury. Because of their physical frailty, they are more likely to be injured. So, conducting research to enable safer driving among this age group is important," said Dr Baldock.

"We have an ageing population here. Thus, we have an increasing number of active drivers and people are also driving longer in older age. It is a section of the population which cannot be ignored."

The other seminars are:

• "At-Scene In-Depth Crash Investigation" (12 June), presented by Sam Doecke
  
• "Managing Traffic Safety" (24 July), presented by Dr Jeremy Woolley
  
• "Young Drivers" (4 September), presented by Craig Kloeden
  
• "Medical Conditions in Crash Causation" (16 October), presented by Tori Lindsay
  
• "Pedestrian Impact Testing" (27 November), presented by Andrew van der Berg and Giulio Ponte

The seminars will take place on Fridays from 4.00pm to 5.30pm at the Art Gallery Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia.

Admission is free, but bookings are essential. For more information and RSVP, please contact Leonie Witter on +61 8 8303 4114 or email: leonie.witter@adelaide.edu.au