With the Christmas and new year holiday period comes holiday traffic on our roads and in some states, double demerit points to discourage poor behaviour. Governments say the strategy leads to fewer crashes, infringements and fatalities on the roads. But some academics are calling for more peer-reviewed research on the campaigns as their effectiveness haven't been examined for more than 16 years.
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00:00In New South Wales, the ACT and WA, you have double demerit point systems in place for
00:08everyone during holiday periods where there's increased risk.
00:12In Queensland, in contrast, you have double demerit points in place all the time, but
00:19only for a second or subsequent infringement within a 12-month period.
00:26And then in the other states, there aren't double demerit point systems in place.
00:30There hasn't been a lot of research on double demerit points recently.
00:34We do know from Transport for New South Wales data that there are fewer fatalities during
00:41holiday periods than you would otherwise expect, which may be related to the double demerit
00:47point system that they have.
00:49There was research done years ago when the systems were first introduced, but there hasn't
00:54been a lot since, and it would be good to see an evaluation of the various different
01:00systems that there are around the country to see exactly where the efficacy is.