What are the factors that contribute to road accidents? An assessment of law enforcement views, ordinary drivers’ opinions, and road accident records

Jonathan J Rolison,Shirley Regev,Salissou Moutari,Aidan Feeney

doi:10.1016/j.aap.2018.02.025

Jonathan J Rolison, Shirley Regev + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2018.02.025

Copy DOI

Abstract

What are the main contributing factors to road accidents? Factors such as inexperience, lack of skill, and risk-taking behaviors have been associated with the collisions of young drivers. In contrast, visual, cognitive, and mobility impairment have been associated with the collisions of older drivers. We investigated the main causes of road accidents by drawing on multiple sources: expert views of police officers, lay views of the driving public, and official road accident records. In Studies 1 and 2, police officers and the public were asked about the typical causes of road traffic collisions using hypothetical accident scenarios. In Study 3, we investigated whether the views of police officers and the public about accident causation influence their recall accuracy for factors reported to contribute to hypothetical road accidents. The results show that both expert views of police officers and lay views of the driving public closely approximated the typical factors associated with the collisions of young and older drivers, as determined from official accident records. The results also reveal potential underreporting of factors in existing accident records, identifying possible inadequacies in law enforcement practices for investigating driver distraction, drug and alcohol impairment, and uncorrected or defective eyesight. Our investigation also highlights a need for accident report forms to be continuously reviewed and updated to ensure that contributing factor lists reflect the full range of factors that contribute to road accidents. Finally, the views held by police officers and the public on accident causation influenced their memory recall of factors involved in hypothetical scenarios. These findings indicate that delay in completing accident report forms should be minimised, possibly by use of mobile reporting devices at the accident scene.

Highlights

Motor vehicle collisions cause more than 1.2 million deaths worldwide and an even greater number of non-fatal injuries each year (World Health Organization, 2015), negatively affecting the health and wellbeing of injury survivors and their families (Donaldson et al, 2009)
We investigated causes of road accidents reported in accident records and compared them with expert views of police officers and lay views of the driving public
These analyses revealed that driver age and gender influenced the ratings of police officers and the public about the most likely causes of road accidents

Summary

Introduction

Motor vehicle collisions cause more than 1.2 million deaths worldwide and an even greater number of non-fatal injuries each year (World Health Organization, 2015), negatively affecting the health and wellbeing of injury survivors and their families (Donaldson et al, 2009). Loss of control, and failure to detect another vehicle or traffic control were reported by the teenagers as primary causes of their collisions (Braitman et al, 2008). These findings support the role of inexperience, lack of skill, and risk taking behaviors in young driver collisions. These contributing factors appear to be influenced by driver gender. Young male drivers are more likely than young females to be involved in collisions due to risk taking, such as excessive speeding and impairment by drugs and alcohol (Begg & Langley, 2004; Clarke et al, 2006; Curry et al, 2012)

Objectives

Methods

Results