Behavioural Resear ch in Road This is the sixteenth in a series reporting the findings of the annual behavioural research seminar Behavioural Research in in road safety. The seminar, organised by the Road Safety Division of the Department for Transport, Safety provides a forum for the discussion of current Road Safety 2006 research as well as the exchange of ideas in this area of behavioural research. 2065 Sixteenth Seminar Sixteenth Seminar You’ re four times It’ s hard to more likely to concentrate on have a crash two things when you’’re on at the same time. a mobile phone. DfT ISBN 1 904763 70 7 December 2006 Price £50.00 00.qxd 08/12/06 17:14 Page 1 Behavioural Research in Road Safety 2006: Sixteenth Seminar December 2006 00.qxd 08/12/06 17:14 Page 2 Although this report was commissioned by the Department for Transport, the findings and recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the DfT. 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Printed in Great Britain on paper containing at least 75% recycled fibre. 00.qxd 08/12/06 17:14 Page 3 Contents 1 Killer crashes: a multiple case-study of fatal road-traffic collisions 5 D. D. Clarke, P. Ward, W. Truman and C. Bartle 2 A critical review of SARTRE 17 M. Gormley and R. Fuller 3 Interventions to promote safe driving behaviour: lessons learned from other health-related behaviours 28 V. J. Strecher, J. A. Bauermeister, J. Shope, C. Chang, M. Newport-Berra, A. Giroux and E. Guay 4 Predictors of safe driving behaviour: towards an integrative model 39 V. J. Strecher, J. Shope, J. A. Bauermeister, C. Chang, M. Newport-Berra, A. Boonin, A. Giroux, E. Guay, E. Candee and L. Ewing 5 Do emotional appraisals of traffic situations influence driver behaviour? 49 A. N. Stephens and J. A. Groeger 6 Cutting down and slowing down: changes in car use and speeding on Scotland’s roads 63 S. G. Stradling 7 Inappropriate high speed: who does it and why? 70 R. Fuller, H. Bates, M. Gormley, B. Hannigan, S. Stradling, P. Broughton, N. Kinnear and C. O’Dolan 8 Should speed awareness courses be only about speed? 85 F. P. McKenna 9 Evidence-based behavioural change for speeding drivers 92 F. Fylan, S. Hempel, E. A. Grunfeld, M. Connor and R. Lawton 10 The effects of the National Driver Improvement Scheme on re-offending rates 102 L. K. Walter 3 00.qxd 08/12/06 17:14 Page 4 Contents 11 Driver impairment and traffic safety results from IMMORTAL 115 I. M. Bernhoft 12 Methodological experiences of a case-control survey in Glasgow 126 S. C. Buttress and B. Sexton 13 Modelling the collision risk of London’s motorcyclists 133 B. Johnson 14 The implication of the flow state for powered two-wheeler training 158 P. S. Broughton 15 Communicating work-related road safety messages 166 B. Lang 16 Factors influencing the behaviour of people who drive at work 176 C. O’Dolan and S. Stradling 17 The HASTE test regime for the safety assessment of in-vehicle information systems 186 O. M. J. Carsten 18 Young drivers: the road to safety 198 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 19 Developing simulator-based visual search and hazard perception training 213 D. Crundall, P. Chapman, G. Underwood, E. van Loon and G. Chapman 20 Can we use the Cohort II data to explore the effects of taking Pass Plus? 225 M. A. Elliott 4 01.qxd 08/12/06 17:14 Page 5 1 Killer crashes: a multiple case-study of fatal road-traffic collisions David D. Clarke, Pat Ward, Wendy Truman and Craig Bartle School of Psychology University of Nottingham Nottingham NG7 2RD Abstract We have completed five projects for the Transport Research Laboratory(TRL)/Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR)/Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR)/Department for Transport (DfT) on right-turning accidents, overtaking accidents, young drivers’ accidents, motorcycle accidents, and work-related road traffic accidents, based on detailed case-by-case analysis of police files. Our latest project examined accident mechanisms in fatal road traffic collisions as part of a joint research project with TRL and University College London (UCL). Our contribution to the joint project was completed in April 2006, and the final report covering contributions from all three groups is expected to be published shortly. This paper reports findings from over 1,000 police case reports involving fatal road traffic accidents from 10 UK police forces. There are clear differences between the accidents caused by younger and older driver age groups. Issues such as speeding, the use of seat belts, driving with excess alcohol and car passenger fatalities are also discussed. Introduction According to research conducted by TRL (Broughton, 2005), there has been a lack of progress with the reduction of the UK fatality total. This is impacting negatively with the long-term aim of reducing the numbers of killed and seriously injured (KSI) in accordance with 10-year casualty reduction targets set to be achieved by 2010 5 01.qxd 08/12/06 17:14 Page 6 Behavioural Research in Road Safety 2006 (DETR, 2000). One of the main problem areas has been revealed to be deaths of car occupants, which have risen since 2000. Car occupant fatalities were found to have occurred predominantly among the young; the passenger fatalities tend to be even younger than the driver fatalities. Contributing significantly to these totals were weekend peaks in fatalities of both car drivers and passengers occurring between 9 p.m. and midnight. Such accidents show a high level of alcohol involvement. Previous research at Nottingham University (Clarke et al., 2002) has shown similar increases in alcohol-related accidents at such times. Alcohol-related accidents, however, may not be the exclusive preserve of drivers under 25. Abdel-Aty and Abdelwahab (2000), using US state data, found that ‘the 25–34 age group experience the highest rate of alcohol/drug involvement in accidents’. There is also evidence that young male drivers take more risks when driving with passengers, particularly other male passengers. Preusser et al. (1998) found that the presence of passengers was associated with more at-fault fatal crashes for drivers aged under 25 years. This effect was particularly marked where teenaged drivers were carrying two or more teenage passengers. Speeding as a factor in fatalities has been well-researched. Bédard et al. (2002) found that ‘traveling at a speed of 112 kph (70 mph) or more was independently associated with a 164% increase in the odds of a fatality compared with speeds of less than 56 kph (35 mph)’. Bédard et al. also found that larger decelerations (i.e. larger impact velocities) were associated with more post-injury medical complications, independent of age and injury severity. Authors such as Jonah (1997) have linked sensation seeking with other risky driving behaviours, such as failure to use a seat belt. Begg and Langley (2000), in a review of the literature, stated that ‘failure to use seat belts is most common among young adults, and particularly males. There is also evidence that those who do not use seat belts … engage in other risky driving behaviors such as speeding and alcohol- impaired driving.’ Brouwer et al. (1991) found that older drivers, by contrast, were over-represented in crashes when turning at intersections, usually by failing to yield the correct right of way. Similarly, older drivers have been shown to be over-represented in junction accidents in many other studies over the last two decades (e.g. Moore et al., 1982; Viano et al., 1990; Verhaegen, 1995). With an ageing population which has greater susceptibility from side impacts (Viano et al., 1990), and an increased risk of fatality from side impacts as opposed to frontal impacts (Bédard et al., 2002), it seems that the human and financial cost of this type of accident will increase with time. Method Our method relies on the human interpretation of the full sequential nature of the accident story in each individual case, which is where the technique of qualitative human judgement methodology can prove more useful than more traditional 6 01.qxd 08/12/06 17:14 Page 7 Killer crashes: a multiple case-study of fatal road-traffic collisions statistical methods applied to aggregated data.