Prediction of Accident Vulnerability Caused by Drivers’ Attention Errors

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Abstract

Purpose: there is idea in society that some people have more accidents because they are more accident vulnerable. Usually, characteristics related to accident vulnerability are surveyed in researches’ backgrounds. But at this research influence of a human factor, attention in occurrence of dangerous behaviors, is studied. Methods: statistical population was 140 drivers of a transportation company, selected based on large number of accidents. Participants attended in two steps of tests (providing matters unrelated to participant’s ear and their repetition by him in the first step, and three-digit report by participant in the second step which at least one digit from unrelated message is included in it). Findings: research tools were 48 different pair messages including digits and words unrelated to each other, sent to both ears of participants simultaneously. Tools used from laboratory psychology for measurement of attention showed relation with accidents’ archived data (p < 0.05). Relation rate for deletion error and interference error in the first step was respectively 0.31 and 0.34 and attention deviation error in the second step was 0.36 (p < 0.01). Also, second step error could predict accident vulnerability. Conclusion: based on this research results, characteristics and attention have critical role in creation of accidents. Second, nature of errors in each steps of attention differs.

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