DRIVERS' ERRORS IN, AND OUT OF, CONTEXT. Paper presented at: Errors in the Operation of Transport Systems : proceedings of a CEC Workshop held at the Medical Research Council's Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, UK, May 26-28, 1989.

Error depends for its definition, commission, and the seriousness of its consequences on the circumstances in which it occurs. As such, it is argued, in this overview of a large number of contemporary papers on (driver) error, that an erroneous act is only a useful index of behaviour where the background to that act is properly understood. The role of error in the development of skill, and its relationship to accident causation and risk-taking is discussed from this point of view. (A) For the covering abstract of this conference see IRRD 834497.