THE INFLUENCE OF RISK PERCEPTION AND SELF-ASSESSED DRIVING ABILITIES ON THE BEHAVIOR OF YOUNG DRIVERS PhD Dragan Jvanović PhD Predrag Stanojević MSc Dragana Jakšić

Contents  Introduction  Participants  Instruments  Key results  Discusssion and Conclusion

Introduction  Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29;  Young drivers are more frequently involved in traffic accidents compared to other age groups;  The researches point to three main problems: inexperience, age and gender.

Introduction Inexperienced in the driving task Have problems with risk perception They are high risktakers in their life- style Often drive at high-risk conditions They are susceptible to peer pressure Consider themselves as “safe drivers”

Participants Gender Male (%)162 (63,5) Female (%)93 (36,5) Age Mean (S.D.)19,65 (1,874) Driving experience in months Mean (S.D.)12,92 (8,16) Mileage from licensing Mean (S.D.)7.234 (15.297) Number of accidents Mean (S.D.) 0,42 (0,94)

Instruments ► Demographic variables ► Risk perception questionnaire ► Self-assessed driving ability questionnaire ► Behaviour of Young Novice Drivers Scale

Key results Variables Risk perception - 2. General driving ability -, Safety orientation,06,61 ** - 4. Body dimension,02,67 **,61 ** - 5. Specific task skills -,04,55 **,42 **,63 ** - 6. Transient violations -,43 **,37 **,16 **,24 **,22 ** - 7. Fixed violations -,29 **,29 **,09,21 **,20 **,70 ** - 8. Accidents -,01,33 **,14 *,21 **,19 **,21 **,16 * - Correlation between risk perception, self-assessed driving abilities, violations and accidents

Key results Hierarchical regression analysis for dependent variable of traffic accident Traffic accidents PredictorsΔR 2 β Step1.112 *** Gender-.160 ** Mileage.266 *** Step ** Risk perception General driving ability.313 *** Safety orientation-.052 Body dimension-.047 Specific task skills.001 Total R ***

Discussion and Conclusion The obtained results partially confirm the given hypothesis ► Young drivers with lower risk perception are more prone to transient and fixed violations ► The influence of risk perception to traffic accident has not been identified

Discussion and Conclusion ► The self-assessed abilities are associated to risk behavior of young drivers ► The results of regression analysis show that the only important predictor both at committing violations and traffic accidents was general driving ability ► The risk perception did not correlate with either dimension of self-assessed abilities

Discussion and Conclusion ► The researches have shown that advanced driving training and traffic safety campaigns can improve the risk and the application of these measures should be certainly considered ► When it comes to self-assessed abilities, education (theoretical courses) during the training can contribute to better understanding of relationship between the abilities of the young driver and driving task

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION …