Driver fatigue campaigns (NSW Roads and Traffic Authority)

New South Wales road safety advertising on driver fatigue from the 1990s, shaped by RTA research on fatigue crashes in cities and on why drivers 'push on' when tired. Experiments with these ads found lower fear levels and concrete coping tips made drivers more accepting of the message.

Years: 1995–now
Country: Australia
Topic: Sleep Traffic safety
Asks people to: Stop
Strategy: Fear appeal Self efficacy
Channel: Outdoor Radio TV
Audience: Adults

Evidence

ExperimentalUnknown

Message experiment (2002): lower-fear driver fatigue ads cut message rejection without lowering acceptance, and adding explicit coping strategies raised acceptance. A 2006 survey of 1,000 NSW drivers found seeing fatigue as serious and socially unacceptable predicted safer behaviour. No crash outcome evaluation found.

Sponsor (who paid)

Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW Foreign government, lead

Credits (who made it)

Not recorded yet.

Related campaigns

Don't drive tired. Sleep is the only answer 2005–now

Sources

Driver fatigue in the city reference · 1996
Tired of raising awareness of driver fatigue? Push on evaluation · 2006
Changing Drivers' Intentions and Behaviours Using Fear-Based Driver Fatigue Advertisements evaluation · 2002 · DOI 10.1300/j026v19n04_05 · PMID 12557989
Countermeasures to driver fatigue: a review of public awareness campaigns and legal approaches reference · 2005 · DOI 10.1111/j.1467-842x.2005.tb00229.x · PMID 16255451

Research notes

Named campaigns in this family (e.g. 'Stop. Revive. Survive.', 'Wake up to yourself') were not confirmed in OpenAlex; check RTA/Transport for NSW archives. The 2002 experiment may have used Queensland rather than NSW ads; check. Found through OpenAlex (October 2026 sleep pass, see docs/sleep-campaigns-openalex.md). Findings paraphrased from abstracts; check the paper before quoting a number.

Record cases/nsw-driver-fatigue-campaigns.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign