Konferens: Road safety on four continents: 16th international conference, 2013, Beijing, China

In the state of Victoria (Australia) the licensing system is based on fitness to drive and people can drive to any age as long as they are safe to do so. There is no age based testing for licence renewal as research shows that this does not result in improved road safety outcomes. Medically at-risk drivers are managed through the licensing system. In Australia drivers of all ages are required to report to the driver licensing authority (in the state of Victoria, this is VicRoads) any serious or chronic medical condition or disability that may affect the ability to drive safely. Health professionals can advise drivers which conditions need to be reported. Victoria‘s licensing system also depends on referrals from police, concerned family and friends, other members of the public and health professionals. There is no mandatory reporting of at-risk patients by health professionals, as this may deter drivers from seeking the necessary medical treatment. However, should any member of the public report at-risk drivers in good faith they are immune from being sued. It is important that health professionals are educated in which medical conditions and disabilities can affect safe driving and therefore need to be reported to VicRoads, and how to advise their patients accordingly. As such, VicRoads developed SafeDrive Medical Seminars to educate health professionals in assessing fitness to drive. These were delivered free of charge to health professionals who attended after business hours. To provide a program which health professionals could undertake in their own time, an online version of SafeDrive Medical was developed in 2005. In 2012 SafeDrive Medical was redeveloped to align with the new Assessing Fitness to Drive for commercial and private vehicle drivers: medical standards for licensing and clinical management guidelines, March 2012. This paper describes the development and content of SafeDrive Medical, and the preliminary results and implications of an evaluation. The findings show that participants found the program useful and user friendly, and were confident in being able to assess and identify at-risk drivers. However, further promotion is required to increase the number of participants taking part.