RISK TAKING AND SAFETY RESTRAINT USAGE OF YOUNG DRIVERS. TECHNICAL REPORT OF EXPERIMENTAL STUDY. FINAL REPORT

This year-long study involved three tasks: (1) testing the effects of three treatments designed to motivate increased safety belt use among young drivers; (2) conducting an extended analysis of data collected by abt associates as part of a previous young driver risk-taking study; and, (3) validating the measurement techniques used in the previous and present study for assessing driver risk perception. Using 64 male and 55 female subjects aged 18-24, it was found that a booklet and simulated safety belt law increased safety belt use in the short term and four weeks later, but a film did not. Safety belt use did not change nonusers' risk perceptions of driving hazards. Other off-road risk estimation measures (videotape, still photographs, questionnaire) showed a number of correlates of risk taking and extent and accuracy of risk perception. An extended analysis of the data collected as part of abt associates' previous risk-taking study for NHTSA examined risk perception among young male drivers in terms of age and school enrollment, accident and violation history, and accuracy of risk perception. Substantial validation of the objective risk rating scale was performed in the 1982 study of young driver risk taking conducted by abt associates for NHTSA and clearly demonstrated the validity of the scale and its use by experimenters. In the present study, tests were performed that demonstrated the reliability of both the objective and subjective risk rating scale. The report concludes with a comparison of the findings from (a) the present study, (b) abt associates' initial 1982 young driver risk-taking study, and (c) the extended analysis of the data from that initial study. Policy and program implications based on the composite findings from all three studies are suggested. (Author/TRRL)