Drivers in Manjimup Rewarded with $20 Vouchers for Safe Driving

In a unique approach to road safety, police in Manjimup, Western Australia, are rewarding drivers with $20 vouchers for blowing zero during breath tests. The initiative, which aims to encourage safe driving during the footy finals season, will see 100 vouchers handed out to drivers throughout September.

A Novel Approach to Road Safety

Officer-in-charge Sergeant Tyler Winter said the September timeframe was a deliberate call, with football finals and the looming school holidays seeing more people on the road. "[We are] trying to recognise good driver behaviour because of the terrible road toll we are seeing this year," he said. "If they are doing the right thing, if they are not breaking any laws, and they blow zero, then we may give them one of the $20 vouchers."

The vouchers, worth $2,000, were funded through Drug and Alcohol support service Holyoake, which sits on the local road safety committee. Team leader Jo Woodruff said the organisation would ask police to collect data to help them assess how effective the program had been. "This effectively is our first run, so it is going to be our baseline, with the hope that we would do this in subsequent years and see some improvements," she said. "It really does recognise people who are doing the right thing around Manjimup during the footy season."

Expert Opinions on the Initiative

Criminologist Matthew Morgan, from the Australian Catholic University, agreed it was a novel approach, and said he would be interested to see the results. But he said the vouchers would probably do more to build rapport between police and the community than reduce drink driving. "It's definitely a PR exercise on behalf of police. I definitely think it's a good way of building interest with the community," Dr Morgan said. "[Whether] it will prevent drink driving is the million-dollar question. I'm not convinced it will."

However, Dr Morgan said research did indicate drivers tended to respond well to immediate feedback. He pointed to roadside electronic speed checks, which displayed a smiling or frowning face in response to a driver's adherence to the speed limit, as a small-scale example. "That instant feedback stimulates our reward systems in the brain, and it actually has been proven to limit speeding on our roads," he said. "Whether you go to the football and think I'm not going to speed because I might get $20, I don't know."

Enforcement and Evaluation

A police spokesperson said it supported a variety of local Blow Zero initiatives around the state, with Moora police in the Wheatbelt previously trying a similar voucher program. "They are not WA police state-wide enforcement programs and are not typically subject to formal performance measures or statewide statistical reporting," the spokesperson said.