John Williamson: Whangārei A & P show success; road safety exhibit wins top award

Northland Road Safety Trust won best trade site at the Whangārei A & P Show.

I went to the A & P show last Saturday – a magnificent one-day event involving thousands of hours of preparation and set up for participants. Judging by the line of cars stretching from the hospital to get in and the thousands of people enjoying activities, competitions and exhibits, coupled with fine weather, it was a huge success. A real credit to the A & P Society for its organisation and the generous way it brings this event to Whangārei.

Northland Road Safety Trust was an exhibitor with our partners, having demonstrations, competitions and giveaways. Two interactive features were the use of alcohol impairment simulated goggles designed to show how impairment reduces our ability to do simple tasks and a seatbelt restraint simulation, which came all the way from Taranaki.

Coincidentally, the team won the best trade site award with A & P president Evan Smeath’s words being: “The stakeholder collaboration, the thoughtfulness of reaching all audiences and the level of engagement from the public makes this a winning site.”

The seatbelt restraint simulation was a revelation. This allowed participants to experience the sudden stop and its effect on your body when restrained. The simulated crash was pretty mild – a sudden stop at 12km/h creates seven times your body weight of pressure. The look on participants' faces was confronting, especially when considering that most admitted to often not wearing a seatbelt.

Not included in the exhibit because of its operating challenges in a small site was the trust’s driving simulator.

These are used to assist learner drivers' experiences and reactions to a range of driving conditions and situations, as part of their pathway to a restricted licence. They have been in operation for more than 18 months now, and add significantly to the trust’s ability to work alongside voluntary mentors, in providing driving practice opportunities and feedback, in creating safe and legal drivers.

The use of driving simulators for learner/novice driver training has been called into question recently, with NZTA this month publishing its position on their use.

The NZTA position initially states: “There is no substitute for on-road training and experience.” You can’t argue with that, but the real world is not always that perfect.

The position goes on: “NZTA does not support the use of simulators to increase appetite among learner/novice drivers for driver licencing or familiarity with the driving task. And, NZTA does not support the use of simulators to train procedural or vehicle handling skills among learner/novice drivers. And, NZTA does not support the use of simulators to train higher cognitive skills as a replacement for on-road training and experience.”

The full position is a cherry-picked discourse of various evidence interpreted as “the extent to which simulator recorded behaviour corresponds to real-world driving remains unclear, and there are known risks associated with over confidence and heightened risk of on road performance and crashes”.

The last statement is extraordinary given the long track record of the use of simulators in pilot training and heavy vehicle driver training.

Even current F1 golden boy Liam Lawson attests to the huge value simulated training provides to his current performance on the race track.

Kiwi Formula One driver Liam Lawson. Photo / Photosport

It’s very easy to cherry-pick evidence to support your position. My own very limited cherry-picking reveals a number of evidence-based papers supporting the use of driving simulators. For instance a Swedish research peer-reviewed paper published earlier this year highlighted that: “Driving simulators can be used as a complement to the on road driving test.” And: “With a screening test in a driving simulator, risky drivers can be retested prior to an on road test.” And: “Test scenarios should be suited to detect deficiencies in risk awareness, which can be difficult to assess in an on road driving test.”

NZTA need to get real and recognise that technology has moved past the 120 hours of supervised, on-road practice regime, for a restricted licence. No one particularly knows where the 120 hours came from, but that 120 hours has been evidence-based questioned, as being inappropriate in a recent Sydney University of Technology study.

The use of simulators has multiple demonstrated advantages in assisting driver training, and NZTA should get over its conservatism and enter the real world of driver training.