Congratulations to leading road safety advocate Antonietta Cavallo who was presented with the prestigious 2020 ACRS Fellowship at the ACRS Award Ceremony during the opening of National Road Safety Week on Sunday 15th November.
The award is deserved recognition of Ms Cavallo’s outstanding contribution to road safety in Victoria, New South Wales, and throughout Australia.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack, who opened the event via a video presentation, has congratulated Ms Cavallo for her outstanding commitment and ongoing contribution to improving road safety throughout Australia.
“I am particularly delighted to acknowledge Ms Cavallo for claiming this honour which recognises her outstanding work and leadership over many years,” he said.
“Ms Cavallo has led significant road safety initiatives that will have ongoing effects across Australia.”
In presenting the award, ACRS President Mr Martin Small said he was delighted to welcome Antonietta as a Fellow of the Australasian College of Road Safety.
“With many evidenced-based road safety levers at their disposal, communities need Governments to make good safety decisions and investments, and Governments rely on people like Ms Cavallo to provide the complex analytical and policy work that helps them to do this,” Mr Small said.
“Ms Cavallo’s efforts over the last three decades have left a significant safety legacy in her home State of Victoria, and influenced road safety strategy and policy across Australia.
“As a profession, we must renew our efforts in pursuit of the elimination of serious road trauma by 2050, and we draw inspiration from Ms Cavallo’s career to date – her analysis, her determination and her concern for others.”
Ms Cavallo holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Psychology from the University of Melbourne and a Masters of Psychology from Swinburne University, and is a registered psychologist and member of the Australian Psychological Society.
For over three decades Ms Cavallo has made outstanding contributions to road safety through research and evaluation, communications, policy development, and road safety management. Ms Cavallo is committed to drawing upon psychological research and Safety Science findings to ensure that measures and policies developed have the very best chance of success.
Notable Contributions by Ms Cavallo include:
- Manager responsible for the development of the new Road Safety Plan 2021 for Transport for NSW. Her close involvement in the Plan’s development provides assurance that the measures cited in the Plan will be effective and highly cost-efficient in NSW’s journey towards zero.
- Key architect in the design of Victoria’s Graduated Licensing Scheme; The Victorian Scheme provided an exemplar for AustRoads in developing nationally an ideal GLS template for adoption at the jurisdictional level; Ms Cavallo was awarded the Public Service Medal in recognition of her achievement.
- Manager responsible for Victoria’s current road safety strategy, Toward Zero 2016-2020. For the first time, modelling of future serious trauma trends was conducted based on likely impact of countermeasure mix and resources available to ensure that trauma targets were attainable.
- Development and oversight of implementation of Victoria’s first alcohol interlock program targeting convicted drink-drivers.
- Development of a Young Driver Research Strategy, together with Professor Tom Triggs, with a view to ensuring future research efforts are well targeted to support the introduction of effective, innovative safety countermeasures.
- Key evaluations of the random breath testing program addressing alcohol-related trauma, and of the mobile speed camera program in Victoria.
This award honours Antonietta Cavallo’s strong and successful advocacy for the adoption of evidence-based road safety policies and strategies across Australia and internationally. The ACRS and members of the road safety community across Australasia congratulate Ms Cavallo on her outstanding contributions and 2020 ACRS Fellowship win.