Previous research using Victorian accident data established that young drivers are particularly over-represented in two broad accident categories even more than in accidents generally. These two broad categories are (i) single vehicle accidents and (ii) a group of multi-road user accident types in which the young driver is believed to be likely to be involved in a conflict situation created by an unexpected manoeuvre of another road user. The study reported here used New South Wales (NSW) accident data and was undertaken to determine whether the distribution of young driver accident involvement types in NSW is similar to that in Victoria; whether unexpected manoeuvres of the other road user are in fact the defining feature of the multi-road user accident types in which young drivers are most overrepresented, and whether the two broad categories of greatest over-representation are more closely associated with youthfulness or inexperience. The results of the study confirmed that patterns of accident involvement for young drivers in NSW and Victoria are very similar. The involvement of conflicts created by unexpected manoeuvres of the other road user was also strongly confirmed as the defining characteristic of the multi-road user accident involvement types in which young and inexperienced drivers are most over-represented. However, the study yielded most unexpected findings regarding the apparent contributions of youthfulness and inexperience to this broad category of accident involvements. (A)
Abstract