Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Driver Improvement Programs in Reducing Future Crashes

This paper addresses the statistical analysis of driver record data to evaluate driver improvement programs in Ontario, Canada. Several before-after studies were conducted to assess the effectiveness of various interventions in reducing future crashes. The results of these analyses indicated that drivers who receive warning letters, demerit point related interviews or first or second demerit point license suspensions on average have fewer crashes in the period after the intervention than drivers with similar records who were not subject to the intervention, indicating that these interventions are effective in reducing crashes. Drivers receiving warning letters were estimated to have 7.5% fewer crashes after receiving warning letters compared to drivers with similar records. For demerit point related interviews, the first suspension and second suspensions, the estimated reductions are 11.9%, 27.8%, and 42.7% respectively. All of these results are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. The results for a program aimed at high risk drivers aged 70 years and older (70+ program) and a collision repeater program also indicated that both programs are effective in that drivers subjected to these interventions have fewer subsequent crashes on average than drivers with similar records who were not subject to the intervention. For the 70+ program, the reduction is estimated to be 33% and for the collision repeater program 10.2%. However, for the collision repeater program the reduction, which was based on a very small sample size (113 drivers), was statistically insignificant at the 95% confidence level.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB30 Operator Education and Regulation. Alternate title: Evaluation of Effectiveness of Driver Improvement Programs in Reducing Future Crashes.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Lyon, Craig
  • Persaud, Bhagwant
  • Smiley, Alison
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Before and after studies; Crash rates; Driver improvement programs; High risk drivers; Point demerit systems; Recidivism; Statistical analysis
• Geographic Terms: Ontario (Province)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01518692
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-3813
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 20 2014 1:39PM