Older drivers’ insight into their hazard perception ability

Even though the driving ability of older adults may decline with age, there is evidence that some individuals attempt to compensate for these declines using strategies such as restricting their driving exposure. Such compensatory mechanisms rely on drivers’ ability to evaluate their own driving performance. This paper focuses on one key aspect of driver ability that is associated with crash risk and has been found to decline with age: hazard perception. Three hundred and seven drivers, aged 65 to 96, completed a validated video-based hazard perception test. There was no significant relationship between hazard perception test response latencies and drivers’ ratings of their hazard perception test performance, suggesting that their ability to assess their own test performance was poor. Also, age related declines in hazard perception latency were not reflected in drivers’ self-ratings. Nonetheless, ratings of test performance were associated with self-reported regulation of driving, as was self-rated driving ability. These findings are consistent with the proposal that, while self-assessments of driving ability may be used by drivers to determine the degree to which they restrict their driving, the problem is that drivers have little insight into their own driving ability. This may impact on the potential road safety benefits of self-restriction of driving because drivers may not have the information needed to optimally self-restrict. Strategies for addressing this problem are discussed.

Using reflective clothing to enhance the conspicuity of bicyclists at night

Bicycling at night is more dangerous than in the daytime and poor conspicuity is likely to be a contributing factor. The use of reflective markings on a pedestrian’s major joints to facilitate the perception of biological motion has been shown to greatly enhance pedestrian conspicuity at night, but few corresponding data exist for bicyclists. Twelve younger and twelve older participants drove around a closed-road circuit at night and indicated when they first saw a bicyclist who wore black clothing either alone, or together with a reflective bicycling vest, or a vest plus ankle and knee reflectors. The bicyclist pedaled in place on a bicycle that had either a static or flashing light, or no light on the handlebars. Bicyclist clothing significantly affected conspicuity; drivers responded to bicyclists wearing the vest plus ankle and knee reflectors at significantly longer distances than when the bicyclist wore the vest alone or black clothing without a vest. Older drivers responded to bicyclists less often and at shorter distances than younger drivers. The presence of a bicycle light, whether static or flashing, did not enhance the conspicuity of the bicyclist; this may result in bicyclists who use a bicycle light being overconfident of their own conspicuity at night. The implications of our findings are that ankle and knee markings are a simple and very effective approach for enhancing bicyclist conspicuity at night.

The role of cognitive and visual abilities as predictors in the Multifactorial Model of Driving Safety

Objective The current study evaluated part of the Multifactorial Model of Driving Safety to elucidate the relative importance of cognitive function and a limited range of standard measures of visual function in relation to the Capacity to Drive Safely. Capacity to Drive Safely was operationalized using three validated screening measures for older drivers. These included an adaptation of the well validated Useful Field of View (UFOV) and two newer measures, namely a Hazard Perception Test (HPT), and a Hazard Change Detection Task (HCDT). Method Community dwelling drivers (n = 297) aged 65–96 were assessed using a battery of measures of cognitive and visual function. Results Factor analysis of these predictor variables yielded factors including Executive/Speed, Vision (measured by visual acuity and contrast sensitivity), Spatial, Visual Closure, and Working Memory. Cognitive and Vision factors explained 83–95% of age-related variance in the Capacity to Drive Safely. Spatial and Working Memory were associated with UFOV, HPT and HCDT, Executive/Speed was associated with UFOV and HCDT and Vision was associated with HPT. Conclusion The Capacity to Drive Safely declines with chronological age, and this decline is associated with age-related declines in several higher order cognitive abilities involving manipulation and storage of visuospatial information under speeded conditions. There are also age-independent effects of cognitive function and vision that determine driving safety.

Motivational Interviewing (MINT) improves Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) acceptance and adherence : a randomised controlled trial

Objective: Adherence to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy (CPAP) for Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) is poor. We assessed the effectiveness of a motivational interviewing intervention (MINT) in addition to best practice standard care to improve acceptance and adherence to CPAP therapy in people with a new diagnosis of OSA. Method: 106 Australian adults (69% male) with a new diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnoea and clinical recommendation for CPAP treatment were recruited from a tertiary sleep disorders centre. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either three sessions of a motivational interviewing intervention ‘MINT’ (n=53; mean age=55.4 years), or no intervention ‘Control’ (n=53; mean age=57.74). The primary outcome was the difference between the groups in objective CPAP adherence at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months and 12 months follow-up. Results: Fifty (94%) participants in the MINT group and 50 (94%) of participants in the control group met all inclusion and exclusion criteria and were included in the primary analysis. The hours of CPAP use per night in the MINT group at 3 months was 4.63 hours and 3.16 hours in the control group (p=0.005). This represents almost 50% better adherence in the MINT group relative to the control group. Patients in the MINT group were substantially more likely to accept CPAP treatment. Conclusions: MINT is a brief, manualized, effective intervention which improves CPAP acceptance and objective adherence rates as compared to standard care alone.

Using cooperative vehicle systems to collect near collision incidents events : a simulation study

On the road, near collision events (also close calls or near-miss incidents) largely outnumber actual crashes, yet most of them can never be recorded by current traffic data collection technologies or crashes analysis tools. The analysis of near collisions data is an important step in the process of reducing the crash rate. There have been several studies that have investigated near collisions; to our knowledge, this is the first study that uses the functionalities provided by cooperative vehicles to collect near misses information. We use the VISSIM traffic simulator and a custom C++ engine to simulate cooperative vehicles and their ability to detect near collision events. Our results showed that, within a simple simulated environment, adequate information on near collision events can be collected using the functionalities of cooperative perception systems. The relationship between the ratio of detected events and the ratio of equipped vehicle was shown to closely follow a squared law, and the largest source of nondetection was packet loss instead of packet delays and GPS imprecision.

Peer passenger identity and passenger pressure on young drivers' speeding intentions

Young drivers, aged 17 to 24 years, have the highest fatality rate in Australia. It is believed that part of this risk is due to pressure from peer passengers to engage in speeding; which may be active (i.e., verbal encouragement) or passive (i.e., perceived pressure on the part of the driver). The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was used to investigate this impact of peer passengers on young drivers, particularly the influence of the type of peer pressure and a driver’s level of identification with their passengers. A scenario-based questionnaire was constructed, informed by focus groups and pilot studies, and distributed to university students (N = 398). The questionnaire measured participants’ intentions and the TPB constructs, including two components of perceived behaviour control, within a baseline scenario as well as an experimental scenario in which the variables of type of pressure and identification were manipulated. Consistent with the hypotheses, the study found that attitudes and self-efficacy significantly predicted intentions over and above the variance explained by the sociodemographic variables of age, gender, self-esteem, sensation seeking, as well as past behaviour and exposure. Across the scenarios, attitudes explained between 4.3% and 14.5%, while self-efficacy to refrain from speeding explained between 4.9% and 17.1%, of the unique variance in intentions to speed. However, contrary to expectations, intentions to speed were found to be higher in the “no passenger” than “passenger present” conditions, although this finding is not completely inconsistent with recent literature. A high level of identification with passengers led to higher intentions to speed than low identification as expected, but, inconsistent with expectations, different types of pressure (i.e., active versus passive) did not influence intentions to speed.

Risk-informed thinking in airports: the application of business continuity management in airport infrastructure

Airports worldwide represent key forms of critical infrastructure in addition to serving as nodes in the international aviation network. While the continued operation of airports is critical to the functioning of reliable air passenger and freight transportation, these infrastructure systems face a number of sources of disturbance that threaten their operational viability. Recent examples of high magnitude events include the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption (Folattau and Schofield 2010), the failure of multiple systems at the opening of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 (Brady and Davies 2010) and the Glasgow airport 2007 terrorist attack (Crichton 2008). While these newsworthy events do occur, a multitude of lower-level more common disturbances also have the potential to cause significant discontinuity to airport operations. Regional airports face a unique set of challenges, particularly in a nation like Australia where they serve to link otherwise remote and isolated communities to metropolitan hubs (Wheeler 2005), often without the resources and political attention received by larger capital city airports. This paper discusses conceptual relationships between Business Continuity Management (BCM) and High Reliability Theory, and proposes BCM as an appropriate risk-based management process to ensure continued airport operation in the face of uncertainty. In addition, it argues that that correctly implemented BCM can lead to highly reliable organisations. This is framed within the broader context of critical infrastructures and the need for adequate crisis management approaches suited to their unique requirements (Boin and McConnell 2007).

Occupational driver safety : conceptualising a leadership-based intervention to improve safe driving performance

Occupational driving crashes are the most common cause of death and injury in the workplace. The physical and psychological outcomes following injury are also very costly to organizations. Thus, safe driving poses a managerial challenge. Some research has attempted to address this issue through modifying discrete and often simple target behaviors (e.g., driver training programs). However, current intervention approaches in the occupational driving field generally do not consider the role of organizational factors in workplace safety. This study adopts the A-B-C framework to identify the contingencies associated with an effective exchange of safety information within the occupational driving context. Utilizing a sample of occupational drivers and their supervisors, this multi-level study examines the contingencies associated with the exchange of safety information within the supervisor-driver relationship. Safety values are identified as an antecedent of the safety information exchange, and the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship and safe driving performance is identified as the behavioral consequences. We also examine the function of role overload as a factor influencing the relationship between safety values and the safety information exchange. Hierarchical Linear Modelling found that role overload moderated the relationship between supervisors’ perceptions of the value given to safety and the safety information exchange. A significant relationship was also found between the safety information exchange and the subsequent quality of the leader-member exchange relationship. Finally, the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship was found to be significantly associated with safe driving performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Tragic tale of Surachai

The Tragic Tale of Surachai tells the story of a young man in Thailand who suffers a near fatal motorcycle accident and the impact this event has upon his life after he is left a quadriplegic. This film was developed to raise discussion amongst students studying social work and human services at Queensland University of Technology.

Winds of Change

Winds of Change is a short film that contrasts the Tragic Tale of Surachai by tracing the life of a rural Australian man who is left a quadriplegic after a near fatal motorcycle accident. The film highlights issues confronting people living with a disability and its impact on family. This film was developed to raise discussion amongst students studying social work and human services at Queensland University of Technology.

Young, inexperienced and on the road: Do novice drivers comply with road rules?

Young novice drivers are at considerable risk of injury and fatality, particularly when they first drive independently. Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) has been introduced in numerous jurisdictions to allow more driving experience in conditions of reduced risk and increasing driving privileges over a longer duration. Queensland, Australia, enhanced GDL July 2007. Learners must record 100 hours in a logbook (10 hours at night) over 1 year, no mobile handsfree/loudspeaker by driver or any passenger. Provisional 1 (P1) drivers must not carry 2 or more peer passengers 11pm - 5am, no mobile handsfree/loudspeaker by any passenger. Self-reported compliance with new GDL and general road rules has not been examined.

Young and unlicensed : risky driving before entering the licensing system

Objective: On-road driving before gaining a valid licence (pre-Licence driving) represents a risk for all road users. Pre-Licence driving among young people who obtained a Provisional licence within an enhanced graduated driver licensing program in Queensland, Australia, was investigated. Methods: Recently-licensed drivers (n = 1032) aged 17-19 years (M = 17.54) completed a survey exploring their driving experiences while on their Learners licence. Six months later, 355 of these drivers completed the same survey exploring their experiences on their Provisional (intermediate) licence. Results: Twelve percent of participants reported pre-Licence driving. Pre-Licence drivers reported significantly more risky driving as Learners and Provisional drivers. Conclusions: Pre-Licence drivers not only place themselves and other road users at risk at the time but also continue to do so through their subsequent risky driving. Pre-licence driving should be discouraged, and parents should be encouraged to monitor car use and the driving behaviour of their children.

In search of the antecendents for risky driving at railway level crossings

This paper discusses human factors issues of low cost railway level crossings in Australia. Several issues are discussed in this paper including safety at passive level railway crossings, human factors considerations associated with unavailability of a warning device, and a conceptual model for how safety could be compromised at railway level crossings following prolonged or frequent unavailability. The research plans to quantify safety risk to motorists at level crossings using a Human Reliability Assessment (HRA) method, supported by data collected using an advanced driving simulator. This method aims to identify human error within tasks and task units identified as part of the task analysis process. It is anticipated that by modelling driver behaviour the current study will be able to quantify meaningful task variability including temporal parameters, between participants and within participants. The process of complex tasks such as driving through a level crossing is fundamentally context-bound. Therefore this study also aims to quantify those performance-shaping factors that contribute to vehicle train collisions by highlighting changes in the task units and driver physiology. Finally we will also consider a number of variables germane to ensuring external validity of our results. Without this inclusion, such an analysis could seriously underestimate the probabilistic risk assessment.