Many studies have shown that driver education has little effect on accident risk. It would seem that there are no well defined strategies for reducing accident risk by using post-licence programmes. Common sense methods succeed to a certain ceiling but cannot reach above this. It seems that common sense is not valid in road safety work. In France, the age limit for driver training has been reduced from 18 to 16. Accident risk has dropped and the proportion passing the driving test the first time has increased. In Norway, the basic training gives entitlement to the preliminary licence. During the subsequent 2 years drivers must take part in practical training, one course in night driving and the other in skid training. The risk on icy roads has been found to increase by 23% and that in darkness to drop by 37%. In Sweden, training has been changed in three respects; 1) more emphasis was put on making learners realise their limitations; 2) their perceptual behaviour was developed with the aim of increasing their ability to scan and to identify risk situations; and 3) to make private teachers cooperate with driving schools. There was no difference in risk between groups trained by their parents and driving schools. The level of risk in all groups was very low during first month after they got their licence. For comments on this paper, see C 6538.
Abstract