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THE SPEEDING DRIVER: WHO, HOW AND WHY?

CHAPTER TEN ACCIDENT HISTORY, SPEEDING BEHAVIOUR AND CRASH INVOLVEMENT

ACCIDENT HISTORY

10.1 Respondents indicated how many road traffic accidents (RTAs) they had been involved in, as a driver, in the previous three years, and provided detailed information on up to three crashes. For a description of each crash they selected from amongst 8 supplied descriptors drawn from West's (1995) typology: 5 active crash types; 2 passive crash types; and an 'other' category. For each crash they also indicated from amongst a range of choices the road and weather conditions; the time of day; at what speed they were travelling before the accident; the speed limit of the road on which they were travelling at the time; whether the police were informed; and whether anyone was injured. They were also asked separately whether they had been involved in an injury accident during this same time period.

10.2 Involved in an accident as a driver - 155 of the car drivers (14.6% of the 1061 who answered this question) reported having been involved in a road traffic accident as a driver 'in the past 3 years'. Of these 128 (12.1%) reported 1, 20 drivers (1.9%) reported 2, and 7 drivers (0.7%) reported being involved as a driver in 3 crashes in three years.

10.3 Injury Accidents - 72 car drivers (6.6%) reported that they had been 'personally involved in a road traffic accident in the past 3 years in which someone was injured', 57 (80% of these) as the driver of a car, 9 (13%) as a car passenger, 2 (3%) as a motorcyclist.

Types of accidents

10.4 Those involved in an RTA 'as a driver .. in the past 3 years' provided information about each of their collisions. This RTA involvement is summarised in Table 10.1.

Table 10.1: Numbers involved in Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) as a driver in the past three years by crash type

10.5 Of the 187 RTAs for which respondents provided details,

• 77 (41%) were active crashes
• 99 (53%) were passive crashes, and
• 11 were recorded as 'Other'.

10.6 No crashes involving hitting a cyclist or motorcyclist were reported by this sample.

10.7 Following West's accident classification (West, 1995),

• 71 of the crashes (38%) were Shunts, both active ('You hit a stationery vehicle': 30% of shunts) and passive ('Another vehicle hit your stationery vehicle': 70% of shunts)
• 78 (42%) were Right of Way Violations (RONVs), both active ('Your vehicle hit another vehicle when you were both moving': 37% of ROWVs) and passive ('Your vehicle was hit by another vehicle while you were both moving': 63% of ROWVs)
• 11 (6%) were Loss of Control crashes ('Your vehicle left the road').

10.8 Table 10.2 gives the number, and Table 10.3 the percentage of this sample of Scottish drivers who had been involved in none, one, two or three active, passive or total RTAs as a driver in the previous three years.

Table 10.2: Numbers of drivers involved in active, passive and total crashes in the previous three years

10.9 Of the 6 drivers reporting 3 crashes in 3 years, 1 had been involved in all active crashes, 1 in all passive crashes and thus 4 in a combination of both.

Table 10.3: Percentage of drivers involved in active, passive and total crashes in the previous three years

10.10 There were no statistically significant differences in the proportions of male and female drivers involved in RTAs, overall, active, passive or injury as shown in Table 10.4 with, overall, 17% of the males and 14% of the females reporting being involved in one or more RTAs 'in the past 3 years'.

Table 10.4: Percentage of male and female drivers involved in total, active, passive and injury accidents

10.11 There were, however, some indicative gender differences within the category of active accidents, with males contributing the bulk of the three collision types 'You hit a pedestrian', 'You hit an obstacle' and 'Your vehicle hit another vehicle when you were both moving' as shown in Table 10.5.

Table 10.5: Numbers of male and female drivers involved in each crash type

10.12 Table 10.6 gives the crash-involvement figures for each age group separately for male and female drivers. There were statistically significant differences between male drivers of different age groups (chi-square (6, 503) = 15.37, p = .018) with the figures highest for the 21-29 years and 40-49 years age groups, but the variability between female drivers in different age groups was not significant.

Table 10.6: Distribution of three year accident-involvement by age

10.13 Annual mileage, here divided into four bands, made a statistically significant difference to the number of RTAs reported by both M and F drivers (Table 10.7) with, for both, an elevation from 1 in 10 low mileage drivers (below 5,000 miles pa) having been crash-involved to 1 in 4 of high mileage drivers (above 12,000 miles pa).

Table 10.7: Distribution of three-year accident involvement by estimated annual mileage

Accident Details

Road/Weather Conditions

10.14 Table 10.8 itemises the indicated prevailing weather conditions for the reported accidents.

Table 10.8: Prevailing weather conditions at time of accident

10.15 Two-thirds (65%) of these crashes took place in dry conditions, one quarter (27%) in the rain, and 1 in 12 (8%) in the presence of frost, ice or snow.

Time of Day

10.16 Table 10.9 shows the distribution of times of day when the reported RTAs occurred.

Table 10.9: Time of day when accident occurred

10.17 Three-quarters of these crashes (74%) occurred between 9am and 7pm.

Speed of travel before the accident

10.18 Respondents indicated their speed of travel before the accident, choosing a speed range in answer to the question 'what speed was your car going at before the accident?'. Table 10.10 shows the responses.

Table 10.10: Speed of travel before accident

* 50 crashes were passive shunts: 'Another vehicle hit your stationery vehicle'.

Speed Limit of Road You Were Driving On

10.19 Respondents reported the speed limit in force on the road where the accident occurred. Table 10.11 collates the responses.

Table 10.11: Speed limit in force on road where RTA occurred

10.20 3 in 5 crashes (595) occurred on 30mph roads, only 1 in 20 (5%) on motorways and dual carriageways with a 70mph limit, and almost 1 in 5 (18%) were on single-carriageway A roads (60 mph limit).

Was anyone injured?

10.21 Table 10.12 shows whether anyone was reported as injured in the crash.

Table 10.12: Whether anyone was injured in RTA

10.22 One or more parties were injured in one quarter (25%) of these crashes.

Who was injured?

10.23 Table 10.13 indicates who was injured where injury occurred.

Table 10.13: Who was injured in RTA

10.24 Fifty-seven persons were injured in the 47 reported injury accidents. In 3 in 5 (60%) of the injury accidents the reporting driver was injured, and was thus uninjured in the remainder (2 in 5: 40%). A non-car using road user was injured in 1 in 11 (9%) of the injury accidents.

Did Police Come To Know About Accident?

10.25 Respondents reported on whether the police had come to know about the accident. Table 10.14 gives the responses.

Table 10.14: Whether police came to know of RTA

Were Police Informed Of Injury Accidents?

10.26 Crosstabulation of answers to the previous item - whether the police had come to know about the accident - with whether the accident was injury or non-injury gives the number -Table 10.15 - and percentage Table 10.16 - of cases where the police had and had not come to know about injury accidents.

Table 10.15: Whether police came to know of injury v non-injury RTAs (Number)

Table 10.16: Whether police came to know of injury v non-injury RTAs (Percentage)

10.27 Of the 47 accidents reported by respondents as injury accidents, respondents reported that the police 'came to know' of only 78% (37) of these, whereas the police came to know of 35% (49) of the non-injury accidents.

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