Our roads become more unsafe
when we take risks
Some people take obvious risks, like drink driving. More people take risks they think are acceptable, like looking at and using a mobile phone.
International road safety experts were asked about eight risky driving behaviours and how much they increase the chance of a crash. Their answers might surprise you.
Which of these risks do you think are more likely to cause a crash?
Your body cannot fight the need to sleep. Chemicals build up in your brain until they reach a tipping point and you will fall asleep. A tired driver may make no attempt avoid a crash, making the impact much worse.
Using a mobile phone to change music can take time and involve multiple steps. A task like this can easily capture your attention to the point that you forget you’re even driving. Using your phone to change music (or a podcast etc.) often requires you to take your eyes off the road, which is an extreme risk.
Even in low doses, drugs can significantly reduce your driving skills. Taking cannabis can make it difficult to stay awake, or to stay within lanes.
Our brains can only focus on a limited number of tasks. Watching and following a map loads your brain up with more information to focus on.
Alcohol impairs your judgement and ability to avoid hazards. It hampers your attention, signal detection, reaction time, concentration, and hand-eye coordination.
Doing any task on your mobile phone such as calling, texting, looking at apps or social etc. will affect your visual perception and take your attention off the driving task. When a driver is holding a phone and focused on the screen, they aren’t seeing what’s happening on the road.
Speeding drivers and those around them have less time to react. When speeding, drivers can lose control of the vehicle more easily. Speeding just 5km/h over the limit in an urban area can double the risk of a casualty.
Doing any task on your mobile phone such as calling, texting, looking at apps or social etc. will affect your visual perception and take your attention off the driving task. When a driver is holding a phone and focused on the screen, they aren’t seeing what’s happening on the road.
Speeding drivers and those around them have less time to react. When speeding, drivers can lose control of the vehicle more easily. Speeding just 5km/h over the limit in an urban area can double the risk of a casualty.
Your body cannot fight the need to sleep. Chemicals build up in your brain until they reach a tipping point and you will fall asleep. A tired driver may make no attempt avoid a crash, making the impact much worse.
Our brains can only focus on a limited number of tasks. Watching and following a map loads your brain up with more information to focus on.
Talking on a mobile phone distracts you from the primary task of driving. Your mind can more easily wander to thoughts not related to the task at hand. Also, you can remain distracted after a call has ended.
Alcohol impairs your judgement and ability to avoid hazards. It hampers your attention, signal detection, reaction time, concentration, and hand-eye coordination.
Using a mobile phone to change music can take time and involve multiple steps. A task like this can easily capture your attention to the point that you forget you’re even driving. Using your phone to change music (or a podcast etc.) often requires you to take your eyes off the road, which is an extreme risk.
Even in low doses, drugs can significantly reduce your driving skills. Taking cannabis can make it difficult to stay awake, or to stay within lanes.
Talking on a mobile phone distracts you from the primary task of driving. Your mind can more easily wander to thoughts not related to the task at hand. Also, you can remain distracted after a call has ended.
Your body cannot fight the need to sleep. Chemicals build up in your brain until they reach a tipping point and you will fall asleep. A tired driver may make no attempt avoid a crash, making the impact much worse.
Using a mobile phone to change music can take time and involve multiple steps. A task like this can easily capture your attention to the point that you forget you’re even driving. Using your phone to change music (or a podcast etc.) often requires you to take your eyes off the road, which is an extreme risk.
Even in low doses, drugs can significantly reduce your driving skills. Taking cannabis can make it difficult to stay awake, or to stay within lanes.
Our brains can only focus on a limited number of tasks. Watching and following a map loads your brain up with more information to focus on.
Alcohol impairs your judgement and ability to avoid hazards. It hampers your attention, signal detection, reaction time, concentration, and hand-eye coordination.
Doing any task on your mobile phone such as calling, texting, looking at apps or social etc. will affect your visual perception and take your attention off the driving task. When a driver is holding a phone and focused on the screen, they aren’t seeing what’s happening on the road.
Speeding drivers and those around them have less time to react. When speeding, drivers can lose control of the vehicle more easily. Speeding just 5km/h over the limit in an urban area can double the risk of a casualty.
The Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q) at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia was commissioned to survey 32 international road safety experts in 13 countries. Most of the experts worked in universities, the government and public sector, and the not-for-profit sector. Their expertise covered the fields of road transport and road safety, human factors and ergonomics, and mobile phone distracted driving.
Among other things, these experts were asked to estimate the crash risk associated with young novice drivers’ engagement in eight different risky driving behaviours. They gave their opinions about the likelihood of young novice drivers having a crash as a result of persistently engaging in eight different risky driving behaviours (as opposed to a similar driver who does not engage in them). For each specific behaviour, experts could scale the risk between 1 (no change in risk) and 5 (five or more times the risk). Their responses were then averaged to give the final overall risk score.
View more detail on the research Knowledge Centre.