Hazard anticipation of young novice drivers - SWOV

distraction was a contributing factor, is higher in young drivers than in older,
more experienced drivers. If young drivers are more involved in crashes than
middle-aged drivers due to strong emotions (e.g. anger), is not clear.
Young novice drivers are also overrepresented in crashes because they
chose to drive in circumstances that are more demanding for all drivers.
Except for the youngest group of novice drivers (18 and 19 years of age in the
Netherlands), young novice drivers tend to drive too fast. Although the
youngest novice drivers speed less often than older novice drivers do, they
do drive too fast for the circumstances (e.g. driving too fast in a curve).
Young novice drivers more often also drive late at night and they more often
drive with passengers that might distract them. Crash involvement is higher
and the crashes are more severe because young novice drivers more often
drive in older cars with less active and passive safety features.
Chapter 3 provides the theoretical background for the empirical studies in
this thesis. Hazard anticipation is described as including processes related to:
• Detection and recognition of potential dangerous road and traffic
situations;
• Prediction about how these latent hazards may develop into acute
threats;
• Feelings of risk that are evoked by these predictions;
• Selection and execution of actions that will reduce these feelings of risks
and will ensure a safety margin that is large enough to avert a crash
should the latent hazard materialize.
Hazard anticipation has a cognitive aspect (detection recognition and
prediction) and hazard anticipation has an emotional and motivational
aspect (feelings of risk and the willingness to reduce these feelings of risk).
Various types of latent hazards are distinguished. The two types that are
investigated in this thesis are covert latent hazards and overt latent hazards.
Covert latent hazards are possible other road users on collision course that
are hidden from view. A for the driver possible but yet invisible child that
may cross the road from between parked cars is an example of a covert latent
hazard. Overt latent hazards are visible other road users that due to the
evolving circumstances may start to act dangerously. A pedestrian that may
suddenly cross the road in order to catch his bus, is an example of an overt
latent hazard. The processes involved in hazard anticipation can be executed
automatically without much conscious awareness and these processes can be
executed in a controlled manner. To illustrate how this may function the
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