Citation

Lobb B, Harre N, Terry N. Accid. Anal. Prev. 2003; 35(4): 487-494.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Division of Science and Technology, The University of Auckland, Tamaki Campus, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand. b.lobb@auckland.ac.nz

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12729812

Abstract

This study evaluated a programme of interventions designed to reduce the incidence of illegal and unsafe crossing of a rail corridor at a city station by boys on their way to and from the adjacent high school in Auckland, New Zealand. The boys were observed crossing before, during, and after implementation of each intervention; in addition, surveys were carried out before and after the programme to discover the boys' attitudes. Rail safety education in school, punishment for every unsafe crossing (continuous punishment), and punishment occasionally for unsafe crossing (intermittent punishment) were associated with significant decreases in unsafe crossing compared with that observed prior to any intervention. General communications about rail safety were not associated with significant decreases in unsafe crossing. When interventions were examined consecutively, unsafe crossing was significantly reduced between the communications and education phases, and even more so between education and continuous punishment, but there was no statistically significant difference in frequency of unsafe crossing between continuous and intermittent punishment. It was concluded that punishment may be more effective in reducing unsafe behaviour in this type of situation than targeted education, and is much more effective than communications to heighten awareness.