Psychosocial factors as predictors of risky driving behavior and accident involvement among drivers in Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the influence of selected psychosocial factors (alcohol /substance use, driving anger, altruism, and normlessness) on risky driving behavior and accident involvement of drivers. A total of 343 freight transport and minibus drivers were made to fill the Amharic version of self-reporting scales of alcohol and/or substance use, driving anger, altruism, normlessness, risky driving behavior and accident involvement adapted from various sources. To test the proposed hypotheses, correlation, multiple regression and path analyses were conducted. Results of the study elucidated that selected psychosocial factors, particularly driving anger, normlessness, and alcohol/substance use significantly predicted variability in risky driving behavior. The study also revealed that risky driving behavior accounted for limited variability in accident involvement. Furthermore, risky driving behavior mediates the link between psychosocial factors and involvement in road traffic accidents. Implications of the findings have been discussed in terms of improving drivers’ training curricula and enforcement of traffic laws.