Safer Drivers. White Papers for: 'Toward Zero Deaths: A National Strategy on Highway Safety'. White Paper No. 3

摘要

Driver behavior is not the sole cause of every fatal crash, but it is a contributing factor in the large majority of crashes. The estimate of driver contribution to crashes varies somewhat from study to study, and depends on definitions, crash type, vehicle population, and other factors. But the general finding has not altered substantially from the picture painted in the seminal multi-disciplinary crash study, the Tri-Level Study (Treat et al., 1979), which concluded that driver behavior contributed to over 90% of the crashes. Even though some researchers prefer not to use the concept of cause, the dominance of driver behavior factors is evident in the findings (e.g., Blower & Campbell, 2002). Crashes typically come about through driver error, risky decisions, lapses of attention, and driver limitations (impairment, inexperience, age-related reductions in abilities, etc.). Experts in the study of driver behavior view the driver as one element of a system, comprised of the driver, vehicle, roadway, and task. Safe driving represents an appropriate integration of these components. Likewise, a crash is due to an undesired interaction among these components. In this sense, crashes are not driver failures but system failures. The implication is that even though the driver component may be a key contributor to a crash, countermeasures to eliminate that type of crash or its consequences might be made to any of the components of the system.