Study Results from Indian Institute of Technology Provide New Insights into Risk Management (Mobile phone use during driving: Effects on speed and…

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Study Results from Indian Institute of Technology Provide New Insights into Risk Management (Mobile phone use during driving: Effects on speed and effectiveness of driver compensatory behaviour)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Fresh data on Risk Management are presented in a new report. According to news reporting originating in Maharashtra, India, by VerticalNews journalists, research stated, "This study analysed and modelled the effects of conversation and texting (each with two difficulty levels) on driving performance of Indian drivers in terms of their mean speed and accident avoiding abilities; and further explored the relationship between speed reduction strategy of the drivers and their corresponding accident frequency. 100 drivers of three different age groups (young, mid-age and old-age) participated in the simulator study. Two sudden events of Indian context: unexpected crossing of pedestrians and joining of parked vehicles from road side, were simulated for estimating the accident probabilities."

The news reporters obtained a quote from the research from the Indian Institute of Technology, "Generalized linear mixed models approach was used for developing linear regression models for mean speed and binary logistic regression models for accident probability. The results of the models showed that the drivers significantly compensated the increased workload by reducing their mean speed by 2.62 m/s and 5.29 m/s in the presence of conversation and texting tasks respectively. The logistic models for accident probabilities showed that the accident probabilities increased by 3 and 4 times respectively when the drivers were conversing or texting on a phone during driving."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Further, the relationship between the speed reduction patterns and their corresponding accident frequencies showed that all the drivers compensated differently; but, among all the drivers, only few drivers, who compensated by reducing the speed by 30% or more, were able to fully offset the increased accident risk associated with the phone use."

For more information on this research see: Mobile phone use during driving: Effects on speed and effectiveness of driver compensatory behaviour. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 2017;106():370-378. Accident Analysis and Prevention can be contacted at: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Accident Analysis and Prevention - www.journals.elsevier.com/accident-analysis-and-prevention/)

Our news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained by contacting P. Choudhary, Indian Inst Technol, Dept. of Civil Engn, Transportat Syst Engn, Bombay 400076, Maharashtra, India.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2017.06.021. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Keywords for this news article include: Maharashtra, India, Asia, Risk Management, Indian Institute of Technology.