 Training Doesn’t Prevent Crashes
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It might seem like an incredible & illogical statement, but it’s true, traditional driver training does not prevent crashes.
At the Our Approach page of this web site we discussed the difference between training & education. Certainly, a driver must have a basic amount knowledge & skill to operate the vehicle & pass a license test. These basic requirements are relatively easy to achieve, and most people who are able to graduate become a licensed driver without too much trouble.
It’s what comes next that prevents the biggest challenge.
It’s well known all around the world that younger drivers crash a lot more than older drivers. Because of this, an extensive amount of effort has gone into addressing the ‘young driver problem’.
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Next comes the professional driver. The professional driver might drive a heavy vehicle, but most professional drivers tend to use passenger vehicles or light commercial vehicles. Because professional drivers tend to travel much larger distances than ordinary drivers, they have more crashes. Because crashes cost money, professional drivers started receiving some of the very first driver training programs. And, professional drivers still make up the majority of post-license driver training, just about anywhere in the world.
So what happens when you take a group of people (young drivers or professional drivers) and put them through a defensive driving course. Let’s take a look at the evidence.
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USA
“Despite the introduction of driver education into USA high schools the problem of young drivers being over represented in crash and fatalities did not abate, indeed it worsened.” Hodgon, Bragg & Finn (1981) Young driver risk taking research; The state of the art
“Defensive driving courses do not decrease the likelihood of crashes.”
Lund and Williams (1985) A review of the literature evaluating the defensive driving course. Accident Analysis & Prevention
“(Motorcycle) Training did not reduce self-reported crashes when age and years licensed were controlled, nor did it affect violation frequency or cost of damage. Based on exposure, trained riders had more crashes.”
Mortimer (1982) An evaluation of the Motorcycle Rider Course: American Association
Automotive Medicine (1988) A further evaluation of the motorcycle rider course: Journal of Safety Research
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Australia
“An analysis of accident and conviction data for a two year post-training period showed no statistically significant differences between any of the groups, (ie trained vs. untrained young drivers)”
Strang, Deutsch, James & Manders (1982) A comparison of on-road and off-road driver training. A comparison of novice driver training Road Safety & Traffic Authority.
“Post Licence driver education and driver improvement programs have shown no differences between drivers who have completed the program and those who had not.”
Circosta and Salotti (1990) A review & discussion of issues related to the training and education of novice drivers. Brisbane; Road Safety Division, QLD Transport.
“Driver and rider training programs have suffered over recent years from the fact that many skilled and careful evaluations have shown little effect, none, or even a negative effect on accident rates when it has been employed.”
Henderson (1991) Education, publicity and training in road safety; A literature review.
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Netherlands
“The only acceptable verdict on the benefits of compulsory driver/rider training for road safety must therefore be, for the moment, not proven.”
Brown, Groeger and Biehl (1987) Is driver training contributing enough towards safety? Road users and traffic safety. |
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Germany
“Self reported collisions were no different overall for the course participants than a control group, but drivers who participated in two or more courses had more collisions than those who only participated once. Those who reported that they felt the course had a positive effect also crashed more.”
Siegrist and Ramseier (1992) Evaluation of advanced driving courses
The evidence is scientific, overwhelming and unambiguous. Driver training as we know it does not produce safer drivers.
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Searching For Opportunities
People do learn on driver training courses. Generally speaking, driving skills do improve, so to does knowledge. Sadly however, the likelihood of crashing after training does not improve. If you are serious about road safety, you cannot ignore the evidence. The challenge is to identify opportunities for change.
Although the research doesn’t inspire confidence in the driver training process, it doesn’t say training can’t work. Simply that previous attempts, particularly those aimed at enhancing driver skill, haven’t worked. The exciting thing about research is that it helps objectively determine where we, as trainers, have failed. This knowledge helps us identify opportunities for the future.
There is a significant body of evidence that suggests that driver training makes people think more optimistically about their personal chances of crashing. If a person believes that they will be better off than other drivers, they may put less effort into staying safe. This notion of “driver optimism” helps explain why some drivers actually crash more after training, or why other positive effects are negated.
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USA
"Racing drivers, young drivers and male drivers, the very groups with the highest levels of perceptual-motor skills and the greatest interest in driving, are the groups which have the higher than average crash involvement rates. This demonstrates that increased driving skill and knowledge are not the most important factors associated with avoiding traffic crashes. What is crucial is not how the driver can drive (driver performance) but how the driver does drive (driver behaviour)."
“The clear failure of the skill model underlines the need to consider motivational models that incorporate the self-paced nature of the driving task.”
Leonard Evans (1991) Traffic Safety & The Driver
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Canada
“In our view, the increased accident frequency of the racing (trained) drivers is not due to their superior driving but can be more likely contributed to a greater-than-average acceptance of risk, which induced them to pick up the activity of car racing to begin with.”
Wilde GS (1994) Target Risk
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Europe
“These results suggest that a high level of driving skill is associated with a high crash risk. This apparent contradiction could be explained as follows: the belief of being more skilled than fellow drivers increases confidence in one’s abilities more than it increases actual abilities. A high confidence in one’s abilities could lead to an aggressive style of driving that could lead to more critical situations.” OECD (1990) Behavioural adaptations to change in the road transport system. Road Transport Research.
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Australia
“Where such training courses concentrate on skill factors, they may in fact increase systematic desensitisation of fear in risky situations. A by-product of the exposure to the skid, the speed and the tight situation from which one must escape in the course, is that the fear response to such a situation is reduced. Thus the driver is more likely to enter the situation.”
Job (1990) The application of leaning theory to driving confidence: the effect of age and the impact of random breath testing. Accident Analysis and Prevention.
"There has been a realisation that the driver's exercise of choice and level of risk taking behaviour rather than physical skills, are of paramount importance in safe driving."
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Thomas Higgins (1994) NRMA
It appears clear that a more skilled driver is not necessarily a safer driver or rider. In fact, the opposite is sometimes true. When developing safety training a fundamental question needs to be asked. Do we want more skilled operators or fewer crashes? Unfortunately, in the past we have assumed that skill equates to safety. This is just not the case.
Looking closely at the research can help identify key themes for developing driver safety programs that will work. Issues like choice, motivation, perception, ownership and risk acceptance continue to grow as strong safety factors. |
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Australia
"Because crashes are not a part of our daily experiences, incorrect mental programs can develop. Drivers must learn to perceive events that are sometimes inconsistent with their lived experience."
NSW Roads & Traffic Authority (1997) Framework For Driver Education Third Edition.
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Canada
"Given that resources are limited, isolated educational initiatives (like a driver training course), unsupported by longitudinal strategies and motivational influences, are hard to justify. People cannot be safe if they lack the necessary knowledge and skills, but without motivation to be safer, people will not choose to be safer.”
“Road user behaviour can be influenced, but real and lasting safety improvements will only result from interventions that enhance motivation, internal controls (ownership), and social norms.”
LP Lonero & KM Clinton 1998 Changing Road User Behaviour, what works, what doesn't.
"The target level of risk - in other words, the level of risk at which people prefer to operate (accept) - can be reduced by interventions in four categories of tactics. Thus, the safety measure may aim to;
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Increase the perceived benefit of cautious behaviour |
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Decrease the perceived cost of cautious behaviour |
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Increase the perceived cost of risky behaviour |
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Decrease the perceived benefit of risky behaviour" |
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Gerald JS Wilde (1994) Target Risk
Most behavioural scientists agree that our behaviour, safe or not, is driven by a desire to meet a range of human needs. Some behaviours are pre-programmed at birth, but most are learned. As crash events are rare for individuals, drivers learn that they can get away with risky behaviour. They can learn faulty programs. Years of getting away with risky behaviour can lead to underestimating how risky a situation actually is. We call this subjective risk assessment.
Our risk taking needs are satisfied in a range of physiological, cognitive and emotional ways. Understanding the social and cultural implications of safety can help us design programs that work, particularly in corporate settings where management has a large degree of control over the working environment.
Major strategies to enhance driver safety should therefore include defining risk in more objective ways and motivating people to want to be safer by providing an environment where safe practice is encouraged and rewarded.
These strategies utilise the self-paced and internally driven mechanisms of safety. Objective risk assessment improves the feedback critical to developing effective learned behaviours. Developing a high safety culture promotes and influences safety decisions, particularly where individuals drive the safety process.
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UK
"The 'culture' of an organisation can be defined as 'the way we do things around here'. Thus the prevailing organisational culture serves as a powerful lever in guiding the behaviour of its members in their everyday work... A good safety culture, is believed to positively impact upon an organisation's quality, reliability, competitiveness and profitability."
Dominic Cooper (1998) Improving Safety Culture
"Risk managers should be aware of the broader systemic origins of organisational accidents and of the variety of techniques now available to thwart their development. Effective risk management requires the application of different countermeasures at different levels of the system at the same time - and all the time."
James Reason (1998) Managing the Risks of Organisational Accidents
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USA
“Socialization is critically important for the values adopted by individuals, which includes values as to what is interesting and worth pursuing. The social context has a cumulative influence on what people value, which ultimately affects what they find intrinsically motivating.”
Jacobs & Eccles (2000) Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation; The search for optimal motivation & performance.
"The driving mechanism for continuous improvement in safety is the proper use of modern scientific method coupled with employee involvement. The proper use of these methods to manage safety hinges on two factors:
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Scientific {objective} measurement and management of all employee levels of workplace behaviour |
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The involvement of all employees in this ongoing feedback and problem solving process" |
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Thomas R. Krause (1997) The Behaviour-Based Safety Process |
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Canada
“What is needed for effective safety management is a varied, optimised "portfolio" of behaviour influences that takes advantage of the strengths of each and of synergistic effects between them."
LP Lonero & KM Clinton (1998) Changing Road User Behaviour, what works, what doesn't.
Keeping people safe is not easy. We have a need to take risks and there are many things that influence our choices. Corporate Driver Training Australia aims to take what is known scientifically and develop safety programs that work. Our programs aim to:
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Objectively define driving risks (& re-sensistise drivers to actual risks) |
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Promote realistic thinking styles (not optimistic ones) |
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Influence drivers to take ownership of their own safety |
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Provide mechanisms for ongoing objective feedback |
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Learn how to best deal with human failures & mistakes |
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All of these processes take place in the training environment, but will only work where safety is a primary value driving all activities.
If you would like to know more about how Corporate Driver Training Australia designs its products & services please contact a consultant who will gladly provide you with all the information you need to make informed choices.
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