Virtual safe-driving in force

Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) was founded in 1987 in a bid to curb Victoria's alarming road toll. Early work was aimed at reducing the incidence of drink-driving and excessive speeding.

Its success was already evident by 1992, when the number of Victorian road deaths was almost halved and serious injuries fell 40 per cent.

Other early MUARC projects included crash-data analysis, work on changing the behaviour of young drivers, occupant protection, traffic engineering and footpath cycling.

Its work has also migrated into non-motoring areas such as preventing falls by the elderly, farm and forklift safety, boat safety and suicide prevention in the young.

But road safety has been its priority. MUARC has helped set the Australian standards for all sorts of crash protection and pedestrian safety, and contributed to the sealing of road shoulders in rural areas after an investigation into the causes of crashes outside the state's cities.

As the Monash centre enters its third decade its influence is being felt outside Australia.

When Sweden made the use of bicycle helmets mandatory it relied partly on research from MUARC, which now has nearly 30 big projects in Europe, the US and China.

“MUARC is increasingly being sought out by the international injury-prevention community for its expertise and I am proud of the growing international influence MUARC is having on increasing safety and combating injury on the world stage,” centre director Prof Rod McClure says.

Fast Fact

Tens of thousands of lives have been saved by the results of research work at the Monash University Accident Research Centre.