Accident statistics for Finland and Sweden were analysed from 1985-96. It is shown that young and old people are more accident prone than other age groups, and that young men are particularly accident-prone. Inexperienced young male drivers are most likely to be involved in injury accidents, but the probability of being in an accident decreases sharply over the first few years of driving. Alcohol use is related to weekend night fatalities in young men. Accident rates among young men were lower in Sweden than in Finland and this is attributed to later acquisition of a driving licence, especially among young men in full time education. Young men in employment are disproportionately represented in high-speed road fatalities. It is considered that all young men experiment with high speed after obtaining their driving licence. More detailed disaggregation of accidents and exposure to risk, and concomitant task and performance analysis is necessary to reveal psychological processes behind road users' failures and accidents. Bicycle accidents and drivers' visual search at junctions without signals in Helsinki is used as an example. It was found that drivers turning right (nearside turn) look left for cars and miss cyclists on the right. Reducing the speed of traffic at junctions so that drivers have time to observe more effectively is suggested.
Abstract