Highlights A video-based hazard detection study involving 40 participants was conducted. Older, experienced drivers took a longer time to fixate on abrupt-onset hazards. Older, experienced drivers exhibited lower horizontal variance of fixations. No effects of experience were found on driver response to abrupt-onset hazards. Overall older drivers did not take longer for brake response to abrupt-onset hazards.

    Abstract Novice drivers and older drivers are found to have the highest crash risk among all drivers and this has motivated many research studies into various aspects of novice and older drivers. Although age-related declines were expected, studies did not find older drivers to respond slower to hazards. This study examined the hazard detection and response latencies of 14 young novice drivers, 14 young experienced drivers, and 12 older experienced drivers, to abrupt-onset hazards. Older drivers were found to take longer times before fixating on an abrupt-onset road hazard but appeared to have insignificantly faster reaction times after the initial fixation. Hence, the overall response latency did not suggest any age effects. Older drivers also scanned the roadway less as compared to their younger counterparts. No effects of experience were found. The findings provided insight on age-related declines in hazard detection whose effects have been masked by other components of hazard response.


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    Title :

    Effects of driver age and experience in abrupt-onset hazards


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2015-02-28


    Size :

    8 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English