Hazard anticipation of young novice drivers - SWOV

fatigue. It is also high because driving under the influence of psychoactive
substances (alcohol and illicit drugs) is more frequent during the night time
than during daytime. Another cause is impaired vision during hours of
darkness. In darkness, other road users without lighting (pedestrians,
animals, parked vehicles, bicycles without lighting) are more difficult to
detect because of little contrast with the environment. Visibility while
driving at night can also be temporarily impaired by glare from oncoming
headlights. While driving at night especially young novice drivers also drive
more often with passengers of their own age. These passengers, especially
when they are drunk, can motivate the driver to take risks (see Section 2.4.2)
and can distract the driver. Based on a case-control study in New Zealand,
Keall, Frith, & Patterson (2005) concluded that almost half the night time
crashes of drivers younger than 20 years of age was alcohol related.
Although a substantial part of the night time crashes involving novice
drivers seem to be alcohol related, fatigue is probably also a risk factor on its
own. Horne & Reyner (1995) found that drivers under 30 years of age
(especially men) were in particularly prone to sleep-related crashes in the
very early hours of the morning. Typical sleep related crashes are single
vehicle crashes or head on collisions that are not alcohol or drug related, with
mostly no passenger in the car, in mostly good road and weather conditions
and in which the driver has made no evasive actions (e.g. braking) to avert
the crash at the last moment (Van Schagen, 2003). Groeger (2006) supposed
that drowsy driving is more common in young drivers not only because they
drive relatively more frequent late at night, but also because of their sleep
patterns and the quality of their sleep. As teenagers grow older they go to
bed later, but they have to wake up as early as before. Self-reported need for
more sleep is the highest around 15 years of age, but is still relatively high at
the age of 21. Sleep structure also changes markedly across adolescence and
early adulthood, with among other changes, a considerable reduction in the
amount of slow wave sleep. According to Groeger (2006) this may be one of
the causes that waking up not feeling refreshed is high between 16 and 23
years of age. The effect of sleep loss and changes in the quality of sleep may
not only result in drowsy driving, but may also hamper learning to drive as
newly acquired procedural skills require sleep in order to consolidate
(Walker, 2005).
2.5.3. Distraction/Inattention
Lee, Young, & Regan (2008) mentioned 14 different definitions of driver
distraction. What these definitions have in common is that they describe a
source of the distraction. This source can be an object (e.g. a billboard), a
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