Why drivers really crash

1 in 5 drivers crash within a year of passing their test (GAP Insurer ALA Survey, 2017).

The top 10 causes

Why do drivers crash? These are the top 10 causes:

1. Failed to look properly
2. Failed to judge other person's path or speed
3. Driver recklessness or in a hurry
4. Poor turn / manoeuvre
5. Loss of control
6. Pedestrian failing to look properly
7. Slippery road
8. Sudden braking
9. Travelling too fast for conditions
10. Following too close

But why was there an accident? That is the important factor. The root causes fall into six categories: attitudes and beliefs, driver distractions, physiology, perceptual limits, inexperience, and absolving responsibility.

Attitudes and beliefs

Influenced by parents and friends

If Mum, Dad or a close friend drives after a drink, drives too fast, or shouts abuse at other road users, these behaviours are perceived as "normal" and can easily become part of a young driver's natural behaviours.

Optimism bias

Ask a driver to rate their chances of having a crash within the next 12 months: most drivers believe other people are at a higher risk of being involved in a road traffic collision than they are. Statistically this is impossible — we can't all be better than everyone else. "Accidents happen to other people as I am a good driver."

The pleasure principle (rewarding behaviour)

Unsafe driving behaviours can be rewarding, driven by our desire for immediate pleasure. For example:

• "I don't wear my seat belt because it's so uncomfortable" — reward for not wearing a seat belt: driving comfort.
• "I can multitask when driving and therefore I'm safe to check my mobile" — reward for using a mobile phone while driving: contacting friends.
• "Driving a few miles per hour above the speed limit means I get to work on time" — reward for speeding: shorter journey times and not getting told off.

The confidence feedback loop

If left unchallenged, our optimism bias and beliefs, driven by the pleasure principle, lead to a dangerous feedback loop. The misplaced belief that"it won't happen to me" becomes a fixed thought when added to the feelings of confidence we gain from our risky behaviours going unpunished: misplaced belief → driver behaves negatively → experiences no consequence → belief is reinforced → repeat.

Consider the unsafe driving habits we commonly see on the roads every day — the fire service safety campaign calls them the "Big Four": speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, mobile phone distraction, and not wearing seat belts. By "getting away with it" repeatedly, confidence grows and the behaviour continues — until a crash, or a major near-crash, finally shakes the confidence. Only then does the driver recognise the danger of that behaviour and likely change their belief (if they are still alive).

Driver distraction

"Drivers were seen engaging in some type of potentially distracting behaviour leading up to 58% of all crashes examined. The two most frequently seen driver behaviours were attending to passengers (14.9%) and mobile phone use (11.9%)."— AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 2015. That data was taken when mobile use was less prevalent, so percentages would arguably be higher today.

Passengers

Young drivers with similarly aged passengers are far more likely to crash than if they drive alone or with an older passenger. Research by the AAA Foundation found that the fatality risk to 16- or 17-year-old drivers increases by 44% when carrying one passenger aged under 21, doubles when carrying two passengers under 21, and quadruples when carrying three or more.

Mobile phones

A study of 1,691 moderate-to-severe crashes involving teen drivers found that the average eyes-off-road time for drivers operating or looking at their phone was 4.1 seconds. On a dual carriageway, that's 128 metres.

Other typical distractions

Talking, eating, in-car entertainment and sat navs, distractions outside the car (billboards, other people), and emotional state.

Physiology

Brain development (17–25 year olds)

Research from the RAC Foundation has shown that a newly qualified 17-year-old driver is almost twice as likely to be involved in a crash as a newly qualified 60-year-old driver — proving that inexperience isn't the sole reason for young drivers being at risk.

Advances in neuroscience have shown that the human brain matures at a much slower rate than previously thought. The cerebellum ("little brain") forms first and is involved in cognition, hand–eye coordination and balance. During adolescence, the middle part of the brain becomes highly active — friendships, bonding, wanting to "fit in" and self-esteem. The prefrontal cortex — attention, hazard perception, risk assessment, judgement and impulse — is the last part of the brain to develop, and isn't fully developed until the age of 25. This explains why people drive as they do in their late teens and early twenties, and why there's a significant drop in collisions involving those aged 25–29 compared with those aged 17–24.

It might seem that being young is a lost cause for safety — but with awareness and training, attitude to speeding, overtaking, following too closely and misplaced overconfidence can all be improved.

Fatigue

One in five road accidents is sleep-deprivation related. Young people tend to get more tired and need more sleep.

Alcohol and drugs

Fewer people are taking the chance of drink-driving at night — however, others are risking driving in the morning without realising they may still be affected by the alcohol from the night before. Generally, our bodies can process only around one unit of alcohol per hour (10ml of pure alcohol), though it varies from person to person. For example: a night out totting up 18 units means it will take approximately 18 hours for the body to process the alcohol — finish drinking in the early hours of Sunday morning and she'll be impaired for the whole of Sunday and maybe into Monday morning.

Dehydration

Research from Loughborough University has found that mild dehydration causes as many driver errors as being over the drink-drive limit. Dehydration leads to reduced alertness, fatigue, reduced concentration and changes in mood. If you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated — so drink regularly, even if not feeling thirsty.

Perceptual limits

We have limits to what we can perceive at any one time. When instructing, we try to develop a learner driver's anticipation and awareness skills, asking questions such as "What can you see up ahead?" and "How are you going to deal with it?". Quite often a learner appears to look directly at something but still not see it. Why?

Inattentional blindness

We have something called the reticular activating system (RAS), which reduces our mental burden by filtering irrelevant information from our conscious awareness — without this filter our brains would simply overload. But RAS only allows through information it feels is of value, so we easily miss important things. While looking left and right for a safe gap to emerge into traffic, we could easily miss the pedestrian crossing the road. Driving usual routes can also lead to inattentional blindness of roadside features and hazards — the majority of accidents occur within two miles of the home.

Change blindness

When we make an eye movement from one fixation point to another, it takes approximately 20–80 milliseconds — during this time the brain switches off vision (known as "saccadic masking"). We're effectively blind during a saccade. In addition, the amount of our visual field that's in focus at any one time is minuscule — extend your arm and look at your thumbnail: that's approximately the area in focus. These phenomena can lead to disaster on the roads: while looking for a safe gap at junctions, it's easy to miss a car emerging from a road or driveway opposite, or a pedestrian stepping out. This is why it is essential to move your head when looking into mirrors and to take time to assess a situation by approaching slowly into hazards.

Inexperience

The more driving experience a driver has before a driving test, the lower their risk becomes. To get safe on the roads while learning, you need to experience driving under a variety of conditions — on different types of road (rural, single-track, urban, dual carriageways, motorways), in various situations (multi-storey car parks, drive-throughs, car washes, petrol station forecourts), at different times of day (busy rush-hour traffic as well as quieter times, daytime and night in low-light conditions), and in adverse weather (bright sun, wind, rain, fog, ice, snow) with distractions (radio, passengers, sat nav, children).

Remember: driving a car for a test is not the same as being a driver!

Absolving responsibility

A typical characteristic of many drivers is to instantly blame anything or anyone besides themselves for bad events, and to take responsibility when things go well. "The road was poorly lit." "It was the other idiot." "It could have happened to anyone." "It wasn't my fault, anyone would have had that accident."

As we drive we build up a library of experiences — if we resolve responsibility away, the library stops building its collection. Any drive could have been better; it is up to us to identify what could have been done better, or our driving skills do not grow.

A note for parents

Children are like sponges — they model everything a parent does and incorporate what they see into their own lives. This informal education continues until the child reaches the legal driving age, at which point they take driving lessons. We then try to undo all the bad habits, attitudes and behaviours they've learned from the School of Mum and Dad!

Want to learn to drive — and to understand driving?Book a lesson with Richard or call07305 699197.