Study of Most Important Factors of Voluntary Engagement in Distraction and Susceptibility to Involuntary Distraction Related to Road Traffic Injuries

Driver distraction increases the risk of traffic accidents and it is important. Present study was performed to aim study of most important factors of voluntary engagement in distraction and susceptibility to involuntary distraction related to road traffic injuries.Methods and Materials: We analyzed survey responses of 370 bus drivers about six of voluntary engagement in distraction and seven of suceptibility to involuntary distraction using the questionnaire (37 questions). Differences between different groups of independent variables examined using ANOVA model. Was identified most important factors of voluntary engagement in distraction and susceptibility to involuntary distraction related to road traffic injuries based on the average score of drivers. A regression wad applied to estimate of the impact of factors driver distraction on the road traffic injuries using the Odds ratio. Our study was carried out in 2018 and its statistical analysis in using STATA version 14.

Mean (SE) of mean score of voluntary engagement in distraction was estimated 11/53 (0.23), attitudes and beliefs about distraction 63.16 (0.75), susceptibility to involuntary distraction 14 (0.37) and overall score of distraction  88/7 (0.99). 63.78% of drivers of intercity buses were classified in low distraction. Continually checking roadside accident scenese and reading roadside advertisements were identified as most important factors of voluntary engagement in distraction (mean of 2.6 and 2.5, respectively). Rosdside accident scenes and  speaking of passenger with driver were identified as most important factors of suceptibility to Involuntary distraction ( each of mean=2.5). A significant relationship was found between severity of distraction while driving and each of variables age, marital status, driving history, number of driving services per month and negative score status in driving license. The odds of accidents related to traffic accidents for drivers that involving hold phone conversations during driving was increase by 1.46 times.

Event roadside accident scenese and continually checking, reading roadside advertisements and speaking of passenger with driver were identified as most important factors of driver distraction among bus drivers. Individual factors such as age and driving experience, driving habits including number of driving services per month and negative score status (on the license) can be influenced by driver distraction severity. Previous studies results showed that driver distraction status and identifying the most important factors of  driver distraction were not sufficiently considered. Present studies results indicate the importance of a number of driver distraction factors compared to other factors.