Abstract:

Indian automobile industry is one of the fastest growing markets in the world. This steady growth has also implied greater challenges for on-road safety since a steady increase in the number of road accidents and fatalities are reported over the past several years. Majority of these accidents were found to be caused by human errors. Statistics also pointed out a larger representation of young drivers in the reported accidents, who are in their early days of licensure. One reason for this over representation of young drivers in accident statistics was identified as the lacunae in the conventional driver training and evaluation approach practiced in the country, compounded by adverse behavioural and attitudinal factors of young drivers. This research focused on human factors and skills associated with driving to understand accident causing human errors. The research intends to improve novice driver training and evaluation system in the country by emphasizing on aspects like self-awareness, safety perceptions, self-evaluation, hazard-perception, better communication between drivers, and practical use of traffic rules and regulations. The research first explored the nature of human errors in driving, and the effect of the conventional driver training and evaluation approach in creating safety and risk perceptions in novice drivers. It was understood from the studies that the conventional system targeted mainly on vehicle handling skills or procedural skills necessary for driving, whereas the complex task of driving requires both procedural and cognitive skills. Cognitive skill development, like hazard perception, situation awareness, risk management, decision making, etc., were found to be absent in the present system. This lacunae in the system was found to have an adverse effect on safety and risk perceptions of drivers, leading to over-estimation of driving skills, overconfidence and underestimation of risk factors.

The graduated driver training and evaluation approach proposed in this research integrates the essential cognitive skill training to the existing conventional training system. This approach provides a systematic and structured system, taking into account of different skills essential for driving, dependencies of these skills and the nature of engagement of these skills in the process of driving. The approach uses innovative methods like computer-based training, animations and simulations to ensure an engaging and motivating training experience. The approach was validated through a comparative study that quantified the performance of two of the cognitive skill training methods. A substantiate improvement of performance in risk awareness, anticipation and detection was observed for the group of drivers trained through these methods when compared to the performance of drivers who were trained through the conventional methods. Based on the results and observations of this study, it can be ascertained that the proposed training approach can significantly improve risk perception and risk awareness of drivers, and that it can also impart cognitive skills necessary for safe driving thereby reducing the chances of human errors in driving task.