This paper summarises some of the key results from a study of the accidents experienced by a cohort of novice drivers during their first three years of driving. The paper explores the extent to which their self-reported accident records are associated with a range of attributes concerning the way they learned to drive, their performance in the DoT driving test, and certain self-reported aspects of their driving skill and behaviour. For both men and women, errors in the driving test involving a lack of awareness are positively associated with accident liability, though errors made during the manoeuvres undertaken on test are associated with higher accident liabilities for women drivers only. Self-reported errors of awareness are positively associated with accident liability for women drivers, and a score on a scale measuring the willingness of drivers to violate informal codes of good behaviour is strongly predictive of accidents for both sexes. The paper draws conclusions about these findings in relation to improvements in driver training and testing. (A)
Samenvatting