Media Release - 15 October 2007

WORLD ROAD SAFETY EXPERT AT AAAM CONFERENCE

One of the world’s leading road safety experts, Dr Claes Tingvall, is set to provide the keynote address at the 51st Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine’s Annual Scientific Conference, to be held in Melbourne next week.

Dr Tingvall, a guest professor at the Monash University Accident Research Centre, is the Director of Traffic Safety at the Swedish Road Administration as well as Chairman of the Board of Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme). He is also a former director of MUARC.

Dr Tingvall has written more than 100 scientific articles on injury epidemiology, car occupant safety and safety policies for multiple countries. His renowned Vision Zero road safety concept has been adopted by many European countries.

His keynote address will comment on the installation of alcohol detection systems in all vehicles.

This is the first time that AAAM’s annual conference, which runs from October 14 to 17 at the Sofitel Melbourne Hotel, has been held in Australia. AAAM is a global professional multidisciplinary organisation dedicated to entirely to motor vehicle crash injury prevention and control.

“This world conference is a major coup for Melbourne and it is doubly pleasing to have such a respected road safety expert, Dr Tingvall, as the keynote speaker,” Professor Brian Fildes, MUARC’s Chair of Road Safety, said today.

AAAM Chairman, Harry Smith, said, “Dr Tingvall has been instrumental in fostering the development of innovative safety related technologies in Sweden and internationally for more than 20 years.”

Monash University Accident Research Centre researchers will be providing papers on a wide range of topics at the conference including the road crossing judgements of young children, the performance of child booster seats in side impacts, a pilot study on seat belt wearing in China, and driving responses of older and younger drivers in a driving simulator.

Members of major scientific and research institutions from all around the world will also speak at the conference. These include the representatives from PSA Renault (France), the Centre for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), the Riley Hospital for Children (USA), and Virginia Tech University (USA).