Driver training is one of the most important measures to reduce accident involvement among young drivers. Traditionally, driver training has focused on vehicle control skills and traffic rules without reaching far enough in the efforts to provide risk awareness and other higher order skills. Driver training aiming at optimising safety must be based upon an analysis of what factors and processes contribute to the drivers' accident involvement. These factors may be described in three groups, the learning (skill acquisition) process, the individual preconditions and the social influence. The purpose of this presentation is to analyse these three groups of processes and to discuss their implications for driver training. One important conclusion is that more effort ought to be put into teaching higher order skills and risk awareness and that it is of high importance that this is done through practical in-car training. The learner driver must experience the dangers of driving, his/her own limitations, lack of experience, influence of peers, etc. For this purpose, examples of in-car risk awareness are presented. This paper was presented at the First Annual International Symposium of the Youth Enhancement Service, held in Los Angeles, USA, in June 8-11, 1995.
Samenvatting