First She Sneezed And the Next Thing She Knew, A Mailbox Was Looming Straight Ahead: New Institute Study Looks at How and Why Beginning Drivers Get Into Crashes

This article describes a new study that examines the reasons why new drivers are highly accident prone even compared with other accident prone groups. Of accidents these beginning drivers are involved in, they are at fault 68 percent of the time with 95 percents of crashes being single-vehicle crashes. 39 percent of beginner crashes are from running off the road and 31 percent of the crashes involved the beginning driver rear-ending another driver. Most of these accidents, the article explains, are from lack of attentiveness on the part of the drivers, with distractions including various media as compact disc players, radios, and cellular telephones as well as friends in the vehicle. The article also explains types of accident proneness based on gender, with males being more statistically likely to be involved in crashes due to loss of control and females being more likely to rear-end.

• Record URL:
  http://www.iihs.org/iihs/sr/statusreport/archived/2007
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/0018988X
• Publication Date: 2007-1-27

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: p 5
• Serial:
  • Status Report
  • Volume: 42
  • Issue Number: 1
  • Publisher: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
  • ISSN: 0018-988X
  • Serial URL: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/sr

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Adolescents; Automobile driving; Crashes; Distraction; High risk drivers; Teenage drivers; Traffic crashes
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01042857
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: UC Berkeley Transportation Library
• Files: BTRIS, TRIS
• Created Date: Feb 23 2007 1:30PM