Road accidents occurring in urban areas account for two thirds of those that result in personal injury in Brazil. Traffic is the second biggest cause of death in this country. Speeding is one of the major factors responsible for accidents and the pedestrian mortality rate. This paper presents a discussion of the findings of a questionnaire survey of drivers who infringe speed limits and who respect speed limits. Considered are drivers' perceptions of risks from their own speeding habits in relation to legal speed limits. Speeding by both "capable" and "dangerous" drivers is considered. The objective of the research was to make explicit the interaction between the speed laws and the speeding behavior, identifying the factors involved in this relationship that are mediated by the drivers' perception about speeding, its personal meaning, noticed risks, and effectiveness of the established control to halt speeding and create a change in his driving behavior. Twenty drivers who received more than 9 tickets for speeding, along with sixteen drivers with no speeding tickets, were interviewed. The interview schedule contained 25 items, and the qualitative analysis indicated the convergences and divergences between the two groups whose analysis was based on the factors which affect risk perception as explained in the attached literature on control, confidence, seriousness of risk, harm extension and prevention responsibility. Drivers participating in the survey were asked to define speeding. Numerous definitions were given in relation to the nature of the road and the driving environment, legal speed limits, the nature of the vehicle driven and the respondents' competencies. The study shows speeding as an individual phenomenon, revealing a distortion in the public sense of traffic. Individualism preponderates over collective questions in both groups, though the supervision mediation draws different conclusions. For the covering abstract see ITRD E137120.
Abstract