Inquiry urged to consider using driving simulators to help cut road trauma An inquiry submission suggests the Government support programs such as driving simulators to help with road safety. HI-TECH driving simulators should be used to help train young drivers, and the effectiveness of road safety campaigns should be re-evaluated, a state parliamentary inquiry into serious injuries from road crashes has been told. A submission to the inquiry from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine said an "increased emphasis on awareness campaigns targeting young drivers" was needed. The submission suggested the Government support programs like driving simulators that replicated situations such as losing control of a vehicle. "While there have been a number of initiatives involving advertising, promotion and social media, greater direct contact with young people will help emphasise the real consequences of risk-taking behaviours, (for example) doctors, paramedics or police meeting with high school students," the submission says. The RACV said drink-driving, speeding, fatigue and distraction were still the main contributors to crashes on Victorian roads. The inquiry is investigating the cause of serious injuries in road crashes, the cost of the injuries to society and the best measures to reduce them. In its submission, The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons said that although safety campaigns had understandably been directed at reducing fatalities, "this might have been at the expense of preventing serious injuries." One of Victoria's major trauma hospitals, The Alfred, said the likelihood of death due to injury had been reduced almost 60 per cent since 2001, when the state trauma system was created. The committee will report its findings to State Parliament.