Hazard anticipation of young novice drivers - SWOV

performance and driver behaviour was recorded of hundred instrumented
cars over a period of a year. It was possible to analyse what the driver did
just prior to 82 crashes and 761 near-crashes and how the traffic situation
developed in these situations. Some of the most common unambiguous
behavioural signs of sleepy driving are: single or repetitive head drops
(called micro-sleeps 5 lapses of R500 ms), heavy eyelids with frequent eye
closures, and yawning (Powell & Chau, 2010). In 13% of the crashes and 12%
of the near-crashes, the drivers showed severe visible symptoms of
drowsiness just prior to the crash. In a follow-up study it was analysed what
the relative risk of certain behaviour was by comparing how often drivers
manifested certain behaviour (in this case the visible symptoms of sleepy
driving) in general and how often they manifested that behaviour during the
short period prior to the crash or near crash (Klauer et al., 2006). From the
data could be inferred that drowsy drivers are between four and six times
more likely to be involved in a crash than attentive drivers.
In the '100-Car Naturalistic driving study', no distinction was made
between young novice drivers and older, more experienced drivers with
regard to drowsy driving. There are indications that drowsy driving is more
common among young drivers than among older drivers (Barr et al., 2011).
Young drivers are also more involved in fatigue related crashes than older,
more experienced drivers (McCartt et al., 1996; Pack et al., 1995; Sagberg,
1999). This could be because fatigue itself deteriorates the performance of the
driving task of young novice drivers more than it affects the driving task of
older more experienced drivers. It could also be that young drivers choose to
drive longer without a rest than older drivers do. Smith et al. (2009) made
young novice drivers (aged 17-24 ) and older, more experienced drivers
(aged 28-36) complete a video-based hazard perception test at 03:00 a.m.
(higher sleepiness) and at 10:00 a.m. (lower sleepiness). In this test,
participants watched videos that were taken from the perspective of a driver.
In these videos, conflicts developed (e.g. a lead vehicle that brakes due to a
blockage further ahead, or a car that pulls out from a row of parked cars
when the driver of the video passes the parked cars). Participants had to
press a button as soon as they detected the developing hazard. As in earlier
studies in which this type of test was applied (McKenna & Crick, 1997;
McKenna & Horswill, 1999), response latencies (the time between the first
sign of a developing conflict and the time the button is pressed) were
significantly longer for the young novice driver group than for the older,
more experienced driver group (both in the lower sleepiness condition and in
the higher sleepiness condition). However, the response latencies were about
the same in the lower sleepiness condition and the higher sleepiness
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