Citation

Choudhary P, Velaga NR. Accid. Anal. Prev. 2017; 106: 370-378.

Affiliation

Transportation systems engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Powai, Mumbai-400 076, India. Electronic address: n.r.velaga@iitb.ac.in.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.aap.2017.06.021

PMID

28715728

Abstract

This study analysed and modelled the effects of conversation and texting (each with two difficulty levels) on driving performance of Indian drivers in terms of their mean speed and accident avoiding abilities; and further explored the relationship between speed reduction strategy of the drivers and their corresponding accident frequency. 100 drivers of three different age groups (young, mid-age and old-age) participated in the simulator study. Two sudden events of Indian context: unexpected crossing of pedestrians and joining of parked vehicles from road side, were simulated for estimating the accident probabilities. Generalized linear mixed models approach was used for developing linear regression models for mean speed and binary logistic regression models for accident probability. The results of the models showed that the drivers significantly compensated the increased workload by reducing their mean speed by 2.62m/s and 5.29m/s in the presence of conversation and texting tasks respectively. The logistic models for accident probabilities showed that the accident probabilities increased by 3 and 4 times respectively when the drivers were conversing or texting on a phone during driving. Further, the relationship between the speed reduction patterns and their corresponding accident frequencies showed that all the drivers compensated differently; but, among all the drivers, only few drivers, who compensated by reducing the speed by 30% or more, were able to fully offset the increased accident risk associated with the phone use.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Accident probabilities; Compensatory behaviour; Conversation; Distraction; Speed; Texting