Hazard anticipation of young novice drivers - SWOV

Lack of hazard perception skills is considered as one of the main causes of
the high crash involvement of young novice drivers. Already in 1964, Spicer
(cited in Pelz & Krupat, 1974) found that young accident-involved drivers
were less able to detect hazardous elements in filmed traffic situations than
accident-free drivers. Different definitions of hazard perception have been
proposed in the past decades. Some definitions that are regularly cited are:
• The process of identifying hazardous objects and events in the traffic
system and quantifying their dangerous potential (Deery & Love, 1996);
• The ability to detect a hazards, to assess the risk involved in the
detected hazard, to assess one's own ability to deal with the detected
hazard and to compare the results of the two assessments in order to
determine whether or not one can cope with the hazard (Brown &
Groeger, 1988);
• The ability to anticipate traffic situations of which there are two
separable components; the degree of perceived hazard associated with
the situation, and the perception-reaction time to the perceived hazard
(Sagberg & Bjørnskau, 2006);
• The ability to read the road and anticipate forthcoming events (Horswill
& McKenna, 2004);
• Processes related to:
o Hazard detection (being aware that a hazard may be present);
o Threat appraisal (evaluating whether the hazard is sufficiently
important to merit a response);
o Action selection (having to select a response from one's repertoire
of skills); and
o Implementation (performing the necessary actions involved in the
response that has been selected) (Grayson et al., 2003);
• The process of discovering, recognising and reacting to potentially
dangerous situations (Engström et al., 2003)
Two components recur in most definitions: the ability to anticipate road and
traffic events and the ability to assess risks. Perception is just one aspect of
hazard perception. It is not only the recognition of a possible hazard but it
are also the preparatory actions (e.g. speed reduction and 'keeping an eye on
something or someone') that allow for a timely intervention (e.g. braking) to
avert the crash, should the recognized possible hazard materialize. Instead of
hazard perception, it would be better to use the words hazard anticipation.
Anticipation means that drivers have to be aware of what can happen and
take actions in order to be prepared for possible negative events to come.
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