Younger Drivers and Crash Rates

Do younger drivers differ from older drivers? A situation common to many countries throughout the world is that the number of younger drivers involved in crashes is much greater than their percentage of the driving population. This problem is considered a combination of two main factors: The driver's young age and his/her inexperience.
These two factors are also related to driving skills (driving performance capabilities) and driving style (behaviours shown while driving). Driving skills, such as reaction to danger, can be improved with practise. Studies in the field have shown that compared to experienced drivers, younger drivers take longer to realize there is a danger, and then react to it.

Driving Style

Driving style refers to the driving habits developed by the driver over time, such as driving through intersections on yellow lights, passing, and so on. Evidence shows that there is a tendency among younger drivers to adopt driving styles that take risks, drive faster, and fail to maintain a safe following distance from the vehicle in front.

Types of Younger Drivers

It should be remembered, that despite being a risk group, younger people are not a uniform group. Not all younger drivers take the same risks. The group known as younger drivers can be broken down into sub-groups according to their driving styles. Five sub-groups of younger drivers have been identified. Each group is different in behaviour and attitude towards driving. These differences are expressed in the general personality traits of the driver, and in his/her hostility and aggressiveness. Each sub-group reacts differently to road emergencies and dangers and differs in how they divide their attention when faced with more than one task at the same time. In other words, for each of the characteristics, younger drivers are positioned on a continuum, running from low to high, with the highest sub-group representing those who differ the most from the norm and the lowest representing those who differ the least.
Through an analysis of the group of younger drivers and its characteristics, two groups of drivers were identified that were characterized by high levels of aggressiveness in driving, competitive speeding, driving in order to reduce stress, sensation-seeking, aggression and hostility. These younger people also reported higher levels of anger and restlessness in the context of driving, as well as in other contexts.

Promoting Safety

A (computerized) training program, which specifically addresses the problem of crashes among younger and new drivers, may be effective. An attempt made in the late 90's, to create special computer-assisted training programs for younger drivers, showed that risk evaluation skills can be improved. Therefore, training programs can be created for any capability, whether cognitive or a personality tendency, in order to bring the user to a level of mastery.

Based on:
Deery, H.A., & Fildes, B.N. (Victoria Australia) (1999). Young novice driver subtypes: relationship to high risk behaviour, traffic accident record, and simulator driving performance. Human Factors. Vol. 41(4), pp. 628 - 643.