Bad Behaviour Boards Bitter Accidents!!!

A 1985 report based on British and American crash data found driver error, intoxication and other human factors contribute wholly or partly to about 93% of crashes.


An RAC survey found most British drivers think they're better drivers than non-British drivers. Nearly all drivers who'd been in a crash did not believe themselves to be at fault. One survey of drivers reported that they thought the key elements of good driving were:

• controlling a car including a good awareness of the car's size and capabilities
• Reading and reacting to road conditions, weather, road signs and the environment
• Alertness, reading and anticipating the behavior of other drivers

Although proficiency in these skills is taught and tested as part of the driving exam, a 'good' driver can still be at a high risk of crashing because:


...the feeling of being confident in more and more challenging situations is experienced as evidence of driving ability, and that 'proven' ability reinforces the feelings of confidence. Confidence feeds itself and grows unchecked until something happens – a near-miss or an accident.


An AXA survey concluded Irish drivers are very safety-conscious relative to other European drivers. However, this does not translate to significantly lower crash rates in Ireland.


Accompanying changes to road designs have been wide-scale adoptions of rules of the road alongside law enforcement policies that included drink-driving laws, setting of speed limits, and speed enforcement systems such as speed cameras. Some countries' driving tests have been expanded to test a new driver's behavior during emergencies, and their hazard perception.


There are demographic differences in crash rates. For example, although young people tend to have good reaction times, disproportionately more young male drivers feature in accidents, with researchers observing that many exhibit behaviors and attitudes to risk that can place them in more hazardous situations than other road users. This gets reflected by actuaries when they set insurance rates for different age groups, partly based on their age, sex, and choice of vehicle. Older drivers with slower reactions would be expected to be involved in more accidents, but this has not been the case as they tend to drive less and, apparently, more cautiously. Attempts to impose traffic policies can be complicated by local circumstances and driver behavior. In 1969 Leeming warned that there is a balance to be struck when "improving" the safety of a road:


It can safely be said that many places which look dangerous do not have accidents, or very few. Conversely, a location that does not look dangerous may have a high crash frequency. The reason for this is simple. If drivers perceive a location as hazardous, they take more care and there are no accidents. Accidents happen when hazardous road or traffic conditions are not obvious at a glance, or where the conditions are too complicated for the limited human machine to perceive and react in the time and distance available.


This phenomenon has been observed in risk compensation research, where the predicted reductions in accident rates have not occurred after legislative or technical changes. One study observed that the introduction of improved brakes resulted in more aggressive driving, and another argued that compulsory seat belt laws have not been accompanied by a clearly-attributed fall in overall fatalities.


In the 1990s Hans Monderman's studies of driver behavior led him to the realization that signs and regulations had an adverse effect on a driver's ability to interact safely with other road users. Monderman developed shared space principles, rooted in the principles of the Woonerven of the 1970s. He found that the removal of highway clutter, while allowing drivers and other road users to mingle with equal priority, could help drivers recognize environmental clues. They relied on their cognitive skills alone, reducing traffic speeds radically and resulting in lower levels of road casualties and lower levels of congestion.


While lack of good driving skills is a major problem among our drivers, the other is our appalling road sense. It is highly discouraging and disappointing to note that even the dignified with license and experience do not opt to ‘halt and check’ both sides before entering a main road, or crossing an intersection. Many more will not avoid ‘reversing into’ a main road even if for warned


Drivers are often reluctant to slow down, put up their indicators and move to the left or right to get off the road or to turn right or left for a U turn . They would rather turn ‘much before’ a road intersection if there is no median. Many motorists do not use the indicators to forewarn the motorists following behind and some motorists in any case pay no heed to such proprieties. Eventually there is chaos all around.


While in some instances indicators have been made obsolete in several instances in India one will find truck drivers having cleaner assistants who will double up as a navigation assistants. They will assist the drivers who operate the trucks as beasts of road, by continuously waving their hands. It would challenge anybody’s wit to understand that gesture. It is anybody’s guess if he is guiding the driver or the vehicles passing close by. In any case the coordination between the driver and cleaner could be a myth and if some mishap occurs, the cleaner may be the first to vanish from the spot, if not the driver too. Less said and more ignored about this freakish arrangement would serve to road users better. For in most instances the waving could mean that the beast has the right of way and so ‘please keep off’. And God alone can save the other motorists if the communication between the driver and the cleaner misfires.

Between poor driving skills and lack of road sense the latter is far more dangerous. Inept driving does cause accidents, but our woeful bliss of road sense and traffic rules is the major cause of road accidents.


Abysmal road sense on the part of a few drivers potentially mean life and death for other road users. The rule abiding drivers, the dignified drivers, trained drivers, professional drivers, commercial drivers, women drivers, seasoned drivers, young drivers, old drivers, women drivers and service drivers are all put to great trouble and tribulations. Over-speeding, unsafe overtaking and tailgating together form a troika that experts the world over consider as the biggest cause for road accidents.