Abstract
Taxicab drivers who reported an abnormal number of accidents in which they were struck from behind, when tested on a classical laboratory reaction-time apparatus, were found to have a reaction pattern made up of slow initiation time and compensatingly fast movement time. Drivers with this perceptual motor pattern probably stopped their vehicles more abruptly in a way that cannot be duplicated by a following driver, or in the headway of the following vehicle. However, drivers with such an atypical perception reaction had fewer accidents in their headways and therefore had lower overall accident rates. Suggestions for further research and the possible implications of these findings were discussed.