This study is a pilot project based on the basic idea that a safe driver uses large safety margins, consequently, is good at avoiding critical situations in traffic. The aim is to elaborate and implement a voluntary further education for young drivers, based on the idea of safety margins, and to evaluate the effects on accident risk, driving habits and attitudes. The target group is young drivers aged 18 to 24, who are policy holders in Skandia, a Swedish insurance company. The aim is to obtain a total of 3,000 participants in the project, 2,000 in a test group and 1,000 in a control group. The further eduction is a one-day course where the content is focused on risk awareness and defensive driving. The aim is to influence participants' motivation to use large safety margins when driving. The education is systematically varied according to the components training/demonstrations and reward which resulted in four different types of courses possible to compare with the control group. A total of 137 one-day courses were carried out in a total of ten places in Sweden between Oct/Nov 1993 and Dec 1994. In order to evaluate the education, data will be obtained on accidents, driving habits and attitudes for the years 1995 and 1996. During 1995 and 1996 data will be obtained on accidents, driving habits and attitudes to evaluate the education. The dead-line for the project is 1997. The project is a collaboration between the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), Skandia (Swedish insurance company), the Swedish National Road Administration (SNRA), the National Society for Road Safety (NTF), the Swedish Transport and Communications Research Board (KFB), and some of the Swedish local Traffic Safety Federations and Driving Ranges. Besides a description of the study design and some examples of the content, the following results will be presented: 1) Results and experience from the recruitment of participants to the project; 2) Preliminary results of the effects of traffic accidents reported to the insurance company; 3) Preliminary results of the effects on driving habits and attitudes. (A) The paper consists of this abstract.
Samenvatting