"There's a Maccas on the Left and Something on the Right": P-Platers, Passion, and Perception

Please do not remove this page

"There's a Maccas on the Left and Something on
the Right": P-Platers, Passion, and Perception
Scott-Parker, Bridie; Huckstepp, Tyrone; English, Kathryn; et.al.
https://research.usc.edu.au/discovery/delivery/61USC_INST:ResearchRepository/12126624250002621?l#13126973650002621

Scott-Parker, B., Huckstepp, T., English, K., & Huang, B. (2018). “There’s a Maccas on the Left and Something
on the Right”: P-Platers, Passion, and Perception. International Congress of Applied Psychology.
https://research.usc.edu.au/discovery/fulldisplay/alma99450880502621/61USC_INST:ResearchRepository

Document Type: Presentation

USC Research Bank: https://research.usc.edu.au
research-repository@usc.edu.au
Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Reproduced with permission.
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“There’s a maccas on the left
  and something on the right”:
P-platers, perception, passion, and peril
          Dr Bridie Scott-Parker

The Sunshine Coast….

Young driver road safety..
Solely a Queensland problem?
• In 2016 drivers aged 17-24 years
   • 12.6% of licensed population
   • 17.9% of fatalities, 22.36% of hospitalised casualties
   • Involved in 24.7% of fatalities, 33.7% of hospitalised casualties

Young driver road safety..
• Solely an Australian
  problem?
  • 15-24 years highest
    rate of injury in road
    crash
  • Road crash most
    common cause of
    injury
• Global problem
  • Road crash injuries
    leading cause of death
    for 15-29 year old road
    users

Young driver road safety..

• Contributing factors?
  • Journey-related factors
     • Eg, Vehicle, speed, seat-belts
  • Age-related factors
     • Eg, Emotional state, importance of peers
  • Driving inexperience-related factors
     • Eg, Situation awareness
• Intervention to target some of these factors?
  • Graduated driver licensing

Graduated driver licensing

• Graduated
  • Exposure to driving risks
  • Opportunity to develop driving skills
• Queensland GDL:
  • Learners
     • Min. 100 hours in logbook (min. 10 at night), min
       12 month duration
  • P-platers
     • Min. 12 month duration, conditions and restrictions

Graduated driver licensing
• Has it fixed the ‘young driver problem’?
  • Learners are gaining more driving practice
    (yes)
  • Lower crash rates (yes)
• BUT P platers, Queensland 2017
  • 5.8% of licensed drivers
  • Involved in 11.3% of road crash fatalities (no)
  • Involved in 19.3% of road crash
    hospitalisations (no)

Young drivers

                11

P-plater crashes
• How do we remedy this problem?
  • Driver training
     • What happens in the pre/learner phase?
     • What skills are retained/developed during the
       P-plate phase?
• What do we need to know?
  • The influence of

Driver
emotion

Passengers

• Direct influence
  • Overt encouragement
  • Fatal five context
     • Seatbelts, speed,
       distraction, alcohol,
       fatigue
• Indirect influence
  • Simply being in the
    car…..

Situation awareness

• Continual risk assessment (and change)
  • Perception, Comprehension, Projection
  • So they are not the Terminator, or are terminated

P-plater study
• 96 P-platers
  • Males
  • Age
  • Driving experience
  • Half brought friend as passenger (‘normal’
    behaviour)
• ‘Immerse’ cave simulator
    Step 1: Simulated drive
    Step 2: Emotional writing task
    Step 3: Simulated drive

Data analysis

http://testing.engageresearch.net/download/DaytimeAFrontTrim8691-10999.avi

• Verbal commentary analysed by PCP (%)
    • Perception: I see a car
    • Perception/Comprehension: There is a car
      coming on my right
      Perception/Comprehension/Projection: We are
      about to merge so I am checking what is front
      of me and beside me, and I am merging at a
      safe speed and the traffic is flowing

P-platers alone/passenger
100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

 0%
       Alone before   Alone after        With passenger before   With passenger after
                            P       PC    PCP

P-plater emotions
100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

 0%
       Angry    Angry after Sad before Sad after    Happy    Happy after Excited   Excited
       before                                       before               before     after
                                      P     PC     PCP

P-plater angry alone/pass.
100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

 0%
       Alone before   Alone after        With passenger before   With passenger after
                            P       PC    PCP

P-plater sad alone/pass.
100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

 0%
       Alone before   Alone after        With passenger before   With passenger after
                            P       PC    PCP

P-plater happy alone/pass.
100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

 0%
       Alone before   Alone after        With passenger before   With passenger after
                            P       PC    PCP

P-plater excited alone/pass.
100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

 0%
       Alone before   Alone after        With passenger before   With passenger after
                            P       PC    PCP

What does this mean?

• Reductions in situation awareness
  • With passengers
  • With emotions
     • Sad, happy, excited, angry
  • With passengers and emotions

What does this mean?

• Much reduction was from PCP (safest
  situation awareness) to P (least safe situation
  awareness)
   • Eg Sad, with passenger:
      • Before: “We are about to merge again, just be
        cautious about the cars behind me. There are
        cars to my right I ‘m going to have to merge
        with this as well, just be cautious of them”
        (PCP)
      • After: “Car in front of me is jumping in the right
        hand lane to merge. Left lane disappears”

What does this mean?

• Some reduction from PCP to PC
  • Eg Happy, alone:
     • Before: “Now we want to keep checking around
       to see if there are any cars coming in case we
       want to merge. It doesn’t say we need to, but it
       is good to make sure it’s clear if we want to
       merge”
     • After: “We are forming one lane so changing in
       to the right lane, there are no cars in the right
       lane”

Intervention?
• P plate phase
  • Continue peer passenger restriction
     • Ensure compliance
     • Educate current P-platers/parents/driving
       instructors etc that passengers impair situation
       awareness
     • Encourage co-driving
• Learner phase
  • Gain practice that increases situation
    awareness skills
  • Gain practice driving with peer passengers

Intervention?
• Pre-learner phase
  • Situation awareness fast tracking, including
    identifying escape routes
    • In-car game for parents and pre-learners
    • Builds situation awareness of risks
        • to the young driver
        • posed by the young driver
    • Akin to a ‘vaccine’ against negative influences as a
      P-plater driving alone and while potentially
      influenced by
        • Passengers
        • Emotions
        • Emotions and passengers

Questions?
     Dr Bridie Scott-Parker
     bscottpa@usc.edu.au
   Adolescent Risk Research Unit
     http://www.usc.edu.au/arru
Consortium of Adolescent Road Safety
          www.cadrosa.org
          Dr Bridie Facebook
 https://www.facebook.com/DrBridie
           Dr Bridie Twitter
     https://twitter.com/Dr_Bridie