How can we better understand how “risky” a particular person is when driving? Some people are very risky, whilst others are far more cautious and less likely to have an accident. We know that males are more risky than females and that there is increased risk of an accident if you are under 25 years […]
News
Don’t rise to the bait
February 5th, 2016
Road rage occasionally makes the news when drivers really lose their temper but there are earlier stages of this potentially dangerous condition that many of us witness, or are even subject to ourselves, on a day to day basis. Some of us are prone to a form of road rage because we take other peoples’ […]
Post Accident Trauma – a psychological perspective
July 23rd, 2015
When we think of road traffic incidents we generally think of the incident itself, or perhaps the physical injuries that can occur, but there are serious psychological issues as well. Road traffic incidents have all the ingredients necessary for post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s entirely possible that someone could survive a road traffic incident physically uninjured […]
Passenger induced distraction
April 10th, 2015
One of the most interesting things about studies into driving habits is that so many of the results are counterintuitive. Strikingly and tragically, one of those facts is that teenage drivers accompanied by other teenage passengers are more likely to crash than those who are driving alone. The risk is more than double for teenagers […]
Rubbernecking – nature or nurture?
February 11th, 2015
Many of us have been involved in traffic queues and congestion caused by so-called ‘rubbernecking’ by those passing a broken down vehicle or a collision. It’s unfortunate that journalists and police often attribute ‘rubbernecking’ to ‘sick titillation’ or ‘morbid obsession’ because the real reasons are actually much more altruistic than they may seem. One of […]
Don’t let driving stress get to you
January 21st, 2015
Driving is a complex task that requires many decisions at various times. Experiments have shown that our decision-making processes short circuit when we’re in an aroused state, be that anger or another, heightened emotional condition. We certainly behave far less rationally when we’re angry. To put it into context, a psychological experiment was conducted in […]
At Work Drivers Are Different
November 2nd, 2014
It’s the sort of comment you hear in a lively discussion about driving down at the pub. You might have even uttered it yourself in a moment of weakness on the road, having witnessed a poor bit of driving: “And they call themselves professional drivers.” It’s perhaps understandable that some drivers view those who drive […]
The magnetic draw of the mobile
October 19th, 2014
The dangers of using mobile phones whilst driving have been well documented. Department of Transport statistics for 2012 showed mobile phone use was a factor in 378 incidents, which caused 548 injuries and 17 deaths. In 2008 a study* by the Transport Research Laboratory showed that texting while driving could increase reaction time by 35%, […]
Adolescent Drivers and their attitude to risk-taking
September 16th, 2014
Insurance data harvested over many years demonstrates that the under 24s are at a much higher risk of becoming involved in road collisions than any other age group. There seems to be a general assumption that young drivers fall into this category because they are inexperienced and impetuous. To some extent that is true but […]
Looked but failed to see V2
March 3rd, 2014
How many times have you driven somewhere and then realised you can’t recall any details of your journey? Maybe you went from home to work, and you can remember one or two aspects of the trip, but others are a blur. It’s a familiar phenomenon and may be a contributory factor in what has become […]