Risky Decision-Making and Hazard Prediction are Negatively Related and Could Be Assessed Independently Using Driving Footage.

Traffic collisions are a principal cause of death in Europe, disproportionately affecting young drivers. Driving safety depends not only on our ability to anticipate and respond to dangers on the road but also on the level of risk we are willing to engage within our own driving behaviour. Hazard prediction (HPr) and risky decision-making (RDM) tests were given to three groups of young Spaniards (169 participants): 54 non-drivers ( Non-drivers and novice drivers were less able to predict upcoming hazards and more likely to make risky decisions. Driving scenarios from another country (UK) provoked riskier decisions than those from the participants' home country (Spain). Improvement in HPr skills among novice or new drivers poses a huge challenge as far as driver training is concerned, though it is only part of the solution. Young inexperienced drivers' willingness to engage in risky behaviour also needs to be tackled. Our results suggest that such RDM can be assessed in a similar way to HPr skill, using a naturalistic approach, which raises the possibility of assessing and training drivers on a wider range of safety-related behaviours.

Informations de copyright

© 2021 Castro et al.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Dr David Crundall reports grants from Department for Transport during the conduct of the study, from RAC Foundation, from Road Safety Trust, from Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, outside the submitted work; and is a founder of Esitu Solutions (the company supplies situation awareness assessment and training tools to industry). The authors report no other potential conflicts of interest for this work.