Young drivers who obtained their licence after an intensive driving course report more incidents than drivers with a traditional driver education

• Published in: Accident analysis and prevention Vol. 58; pp. 64 - 69
• Main Authors: de Craen, Saskia, Vlakveld, Willem P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Accident analysis; Accidents, Traffic - prevention & control; Accidents, Traffic - statistics & numerical data; Adolescent; Automobile Driver Examination - statistics & numerical data; Automobile Driving - education; Bias; Biological and medical sciences; Driver education; Education; Education - methods; Female; Forensic engineering; Humans; Intensive driving course; Licensure; Male; Medical sciences; Miscellaneous; Netherlands; Prevention and actions; Professional development; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Self-reported incidents; Surveys and Questionnaires; Time Factors; Training; Young Adult; Netherlands; Driver education; Self-reported incidents; Intensive driving course; Mishap; Self evaluation; Vehicle driving; Education; Teaching; Incidence; WHO
• ISSN: 0001-4575; 1879-2057
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2013.03.037

•We studied the effectiveness of intensive driving courses (IDCs).•IDC drivers reported an incident more often than traditional educated drivers.•There was no difference in the number of attempts to pass the driving test.•No evidence for a self-selection bias was found. This paper studies the effectiveness of intensive driving courses; both in driving test success and safe driving after passing the driving test. The so-called intensive driving course (IDC) consists of a limited number of consecutive days in which the learner driver takes driving lessons all day long; and is different from traditional training in which lessons are spread out over several months and in which learners take one or two driving lessons of approximately 1h each per week. Our study indicates that – in the first two years of their driving career – IDC drivers (n=35) reported an incident significantly more often (43%) than 351 drivers who obtained their driving licence after traditional training (26%). Our study also indicates that the IDC drivers underwent almost the same number of training hours as the drivers who had traditional training, although spacing of these hours was different. There was no difference in the number of attempts to pass the driving test. We did not find any evidence that a self-selection bias was responsible for the difference in reported number of incidents.