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c h a P t e r o n e I Know Your Type While many of the ultimate solutions to the road safety problem come later in this book, this chapter and the one that follows are essential reading because they explore the role of the driver—the human part of the road travel system. This is important for two reasons: the first is that there are many available measures that can be deployed to correct and decrease the likelihood of driver error and the human injury that results from it. From an ethical point of view, we cannot ignore the potential gains that can be achieved in this area of human behaviour. The second reason for beginning here is that we need to understand fully that we will never have a completely safe road system if we focus our attention on drivers alone. In order to have a greater appreciation for the solutions that come later in this book, which relate to roads and vehicles, we first need to understand the many problems related to drivers—some of which are not solvable. To even begin to drive a motor vehicle safely and not hurt oneself or other people, drivers must have sustained and varied experience behind the wheel, possess a degree of maturity, have basic regard for other human beings, and have the vision, cognition, and human motor skills that safe driving demands. It is impossible, however, for all people to consistently possess the qualities and skills that safe driving requires at all times. Not only that, but many drivers find it tempting to enjoy the thrill of fast driving afforded by cars that cut out sound, minimize vibration, seduce with sleek lines and powerful engines, and sometimes bequeath anonymity and privacy with tinted windows. Hidden beneath the cage of almost every car, truck, and bus is a driver with some or many human shortcomings. This is why much of the road 1 3 14 c h a P t e r o n e system itself is a failure—the ongoing human carnage is generated from an imperfect joining of each type of driver with every type of motorized machine over an unnatural expanse of time and distance. Just who are the drivers behind the tinted windows and what are their trademarks? It turns out we can take all the drivers out in the real world and easily divide them up into six uniquely identifiable groups. This chapter will examine this categorization scheme, as each driver-type contributes to the road safety problem in some way. One of the advantages of doing so is that we can design programs and build measures tailored to each group to help bring down their crash rates. In fact, every group demands attention. Type One: Young and Foolish The first group is the new, young driver. These drivers have a fatality crash rate about double that of other drivers. Both male and female young drivers introduce high risks into the system, but males clearly generate worse outcomes. The involvement of young drivers, aged sixteen to twenty-four, accounts for nearly 25 percent of motor vehicle deaths and injuries, but young drivers make up only 13 percent of the licensed driving population.1 And these numbers do not taken into account that young people typically spend less time behind the wheel than people aged twenty-five and older. When exposure, or time spent on the road, is taken into account, the crash involvement of young drivers gets even worse. Canadian data shows that the number of drivers killed per billion vehicle kilometres travelled is approximately five times higher for those aged sixteen to twenty-four than for those aged twenty-five to forty-four.2 Young people are not just a menace to themselves on the roads but pose a high risk to other road users. According to a US study, nearly one-third of the people killed in crashes involving a teen driver are people not in that teenager’s car3 —in other words cyclists, pedestrians, and occupants of other vehicles. At least part of the reason for these statistics is that the time between sixteen and twenty-five is often a highly volatile and unsettled period of youth, and of adjustment into young adulthood. I once heard a social work professor put it bluntly: if a troubled young person can safely get through to about age twenty-five, they will often be okay after that. This statement may be something...

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