Abstract
To gain a deeper understanding of expectations of (young) drivers a diary study was performed. A group of young drivers (n = 211) was asked to describe any unexpected situations that they encountered in traffic in a web-based diary. The 528 coded diaries showed that the majority of situations could be regarded as interaction situations. Also, the majority of scored behaviours took place at the perception/attention and decision making level of information processing. This is in line with a model of information processing in interaction, where expectancy is placed between perception and decision making. Future research will involve comparing these findings to in-depth studies on accident causation using the violation and error concepts.