Little is known about the real-world effect of distractions on driving. A case-control study was conducted in Perth, Western Australia to examine the role of self reported driver distraction in serious road crashes resulting in hospital attendance. Structured interviews were conducted and the data were analysed to describe the prevalence and types of distracting factors reported by drivers involved in crashes and to assess the role of driver distraction in serious road crashes, the latter using a conditional logistic regression model which adjusted for gender, age group, driving routine and weather. One in seven cases reported that a distraction had contributed to the crash that resulted in hospital attendance. The types of distractions reported included passenger distractions, internal cognitive distractions, in-vehicle manual distractions and outside distractions. After adjusting for confounders, being distracted while driving increased the odds of having a serious crash by more than 2 and a half times. Further work is required to identify the types of distracting factors that pose the greatest risk. However, based on driver descriptions, the road environment, the driving task and driver characteristics may mitigate the risk associated with driver distraction and these factors should be considered when assessing the issue. (a) For the covering record of the conference, please refer to ITRD abstract no E216954.
Abstract