As reported in White Paper adopted by European Commission “among all the means of transport used by Man, road transport is the most dangerous one”. Since human factors are implicated in about 95% of the accidents, international scientific studies have focused on the individual characteristics of young drivers in order to identify dimensions that can account for risky driving. The aims of the project articulated in a plan of 30 months, are • the identification of the most important psycho-social characteristics related to high risk driving behaviour in novice drivers in different countries of the E.U. and • the construction of a European training package focused on the modification of these characteristics aimed to the reduction of accidents in young drivers. Car accidents are determined by different interacting causes. Factors affecting the driver have a great importance. Statistics indicate that the responsibility of road accidents is largely due to human factors, such as driving errors, deliberate violations of the highway code, psycho-physiological condition of the driver. All these potential causes are very relevant in a population at particularly high risk for car accidents, which are young drivers. The elective strategies to prevent car accidents in this population have to be sought in training and formation. In order to guide new and effective strategies and preventive action that could be implemented on a European scale, the psychological and social factors that cause the risk behaviour in young drivers should be identified. The project ICARUS pursues as objective: • to identify the factors that influence the risk behaviour in young drivers • to build a European training model based on these factors. The project may be declined following three different targets: 1. identify a European network of training agencies for road safety 2. conduct an analysis on the style and driving habits of young drivers in different EU Countries. The following variables will be considered: errors, violations, risk taking, perception of internal control on road accidents, aggressive driving behaviour, anxiety, consciousness, etc. 3. define a set of guidelines to approach the theme of road safety with young drivers on a European scale. These guidelines will be reported in a manual, supported by a CD-Rom with specific exercises and by a dedicated movie. In this report the results of the research on risk factors of young drivers in Slovakia are presented. A total of 338 people answered the Section 1 of the questionnaire. Males were 191 (56.5% of the total sample) and females were 147 (43.5% of the total sample). Their mean age was 19.3 years (standard deviation .09), ranging between 17 and 25 years. Age was no significantly different between males and females. Not all the respondents answered all the items of the questionnaire, thus each analysis was run on the largest sample available for that analysis missing values were not estimated). Tables 1 to 9 show the distribution as a function of gender of the answers to items concerning the driving habits and experiences. On average, about half of the respondents refer they own a car, but female drivers are far more likely to own a car than male drivers. All of the respondents, however, refer to use a car on a regular basis (the major part of them drive everyday, again with a prevalence of male drivers compared to female drivers), and for relatively long trips. Most respondents do not drive after midnight, though male drivers are more used at it than female drivers. Male drivers also refer to have received a traffic fine more often than female drivers, mostly for having parked where it was forbidden, and for speeding. Virtually no respondent refer to drive after having drunk some alcohol (it be noticed that the item do not refer to being drunk, but only to driving after having drunk some alcohol). Summarizing, young drivers from Slovakia seem to be characterized by being relatively frequent drivers, not experienced of driving during night hours, and very aware of the dangers associated with driving under the effects of alcohol. (Author/publisher) This document is available at http://www.webicarus.eu/
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