The Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q) is a research centre established in 1996.
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| Established | 1996 |
|---|---|
| Location | Brisbane , Queensland , Australia |
| Campus | Kelvin Grove |
| Affiliations | Queensland University of Technology |
| Website | https://research.qut.edu.au/carrsq/ |
It is based at the Kelvin Grove campus of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Queensland, Australia and is part of the Faculty of Health.
The Centre was established as a joint venture of the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC)[1] and QUT, and also receives funding from competitive research grants for specific projects. CARRS-Q's stated vision is "for a safer world in which injury-related harm is uncommon and unacceptable",[2] which it works toward by conducting research, training road safety professionals, and giving awards to other organisations or individuals for successful road safety initiatives.
Areas of research
CARRS-Q's areas of research are currently divided into Intelligent Transport Systems, Occupational Road Safety, Regulation and Enforcement, Road Safety Infrastructure, School and Community Injury Prevention, and Vulnerable Road Users.[1] The Centre is part of the School of Psychology and Counselling in QUT's Faculty of Health,[3] and some of its researchers have psychology qualifications[4] and focus on the behavioural aspects of road safety.[5]
Teaching activities
CARRS-Q has Masters and PhD students, some of whom are concurrently employed as Research Officers.[6]
Research facilities
CARRS-Q has a range of equipment used in road safety research on driver behaviour, including an instrumented four-wheel drive (4WD) vehicle and a driving simulator.
The instrumented 4WD is equipped with sensors such as a multimedia datalogger, physiological devices (EEG, ECG and EMG), laser scanner, radars and eye trackers.[7]
The CARRS-Q Driving Simulator was officially launched on 19 March 2010.[8] It is based on a Holden Commodore sedan that was donated for the purpose, and sits on a six degrees of freedom motion platform.[9]
Queensland Road Safety Awards
The Queensland Road Safety Awards (QRSA) were first held in the year 2000[10] and are a joint initiative of CARRS-Q and the RACQ to "recognise and honour the outstanding efforts of individuals and groups who have started projects or programmes to improve safety on Queensland roads".[11]
Collaboration
CARRS-Q has links with similar organisations worldwide, such as the French National Institute for Transportation Safety Research (INRETS) and University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), through exchange of visiting researchers[12] and collaboration on research papers.[13]