The Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) is essentially a survey tool covering three main types of bad driving: (1) errors, defined as mistakes with serious consequences; (2) lapses, which are mainly failures of attention that are unlikely to affect safety directly; and (3) violations, which are risky behaviours which the driver does deliberately. Research has been conducted on the association between each of these types of driving and road accident involvement. This paper reports a study to assess the reliability and validity of the basic three-factor study of an earlier research project, where a DBQ was applied to a large sample of older drivers, and investigate the relationship between the scores of older drivers on the DBQ factors and accident involvement. The data used were collected as part of a large-scale questionnaire survey posted to 2294 drivers aged at least 50, and completed by 1993. The paper gives tables showing: (1) mean DBQ item scores; (2) factor structure and loadings; (3) mean scores on the five derived factors; (4) a logistic regression predicting involvement in an active accident; (5) a logistic regression predicting involvement in a passive accident; and (6) factor scale scores by accident status, and controlling for age, sex, and mileage.
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