Citation

Kroll V, Crundall D. Transp. Res. F Traffic Psychol. Behav. 2019; 63: 55-66.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.trf.2019.03.012

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Low-speed collisions are a common occurrence for UK Fire and Rescue Services, with frequent bumps and scrapes adding up to create a significant drain on emergency service budgets, and damaging public faith in the service. We hypothesised that the decision to drive through a gap, or aperture, created by other vehicles and/or road furniture, may be related to driver experience and risk-level. To create a test to assess this skill, video clips were recorded from a fire appliance on blue-light training runs. Eighteen clips were selected on the basis that they culminated in a narrow aperture that the film-driver either navigated through, or stopped and waited for other vehicles to move and the gap to widen. Drivers were required to watch these clips, which paused at the point that the film-driver made the decision to either go though, or to wait. The participants rated their belief that the appliance would fit through the gap, and how confident they would be to drive through that aperture themselves (on a 1-8 scale). Novice fire-appliance drivers were less accurate in deciding whether to proceed or not, though their criterion threshold did not differ to that of more experienced drivers. All drivers favoured looking at the right edge of the aperture (either a vehicle or road furniture), but low-risk, experienced fire appliance drivers had the shortest fixations on this area. The results suggest that a video-based test of aperture judgement can differentiate between fire-appliance driver groups based on experience, opening the way for future testing and training tools using this methodology.

Language: en

Keywords

Aperture judgement; Driver safety; Eye movements; Fire and rescue service; Fire-appliance driving