Investigating the relationships between sensation-seeking and addiction with accident risk among professional drivers with structural equation modeling approach

A number of different risk factors for road traffic injuries have been identified following decades of research in the field of road traffic safety. Among the main risk factors, the personality characteristics of drivers have received much attention. Sensation-seeking personality is very common in drug addicts and is considered as a determining factor in increasing the risk of traffic accidents. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between sensation-seeking and addiction with accident risk among professional drivers with structural equation modeling approach. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 303 professional drivers in Kashan city. Sensation-seeking trait was measured using the Zuckerman Sensation-Seeking Scale-V (SSS-V) (it consists of 40 forced-choice questions). Furthermore, a questionnaire was prepared to evaluate the number of accidents and socio-demographic factors. Structural equation modeling approaches using software Amos 24.0 were used to investigate the research hypothesis. According to the results, the average age of the participants was 43.15 years (SD=10.29), some of them were passenger vehicle drivers (20.1%) and the rest were cargo transport drivers (79.9%), most of whom were married (94%). Participants drove for an average of 11.3 years (SD=9.2) with an average speed of 85.9 km/h (SD=13.2). The sensation-seeking questionnaire had acceptable validity and reliability indicators (factor loading, Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, average variance extracted were all higher than 0.7, 0.7, 0.5, 0.7). According to the results of the final model, there are significant and positive relationships between sensation-seeking and addiction and accident risk, as well as the fit indices of the model are good (x2/df=2.79; CFI=0.98; RMSEA=0.07). There is a significant relationship between sensation seeking and addiction with the risk of accidents, therefore, a very important and primary issue in reducing road accidents and accidents is to know the prevalence and extent of occupational driving with drugs, in addition, it is necessary to further investigate the factors that lead to driving while taking drugs. Therefore, it is suggested that by examining the perceptions and attitudes of professional drivers, we will understand what causes this behavior in order to act as a deterrent for these behaviors by developing targeted educational strategies and also implementing relevant laws.