Car Collision: A Naturalistic Driving Study

Car collisions are very problematic in the United States and in the world. They are the leading cause of death for 16 to 24 years old in the United States. Previous studies report that the older the driver gets the less collisions they get into. This is due to the driver getting more experience. In this article, Fearghal O’brien and his group wanted to find out whether teens that got into crash changed their driving behaviors. They believed that after being involved in a severe crash, teens change their driving styles and become more cautious. Obrien and his group aim were to see any change in driving style in the teens after a severe crash. They tried to find any study similar to this, but couldn’t find any with strong enough evidence. They took it upon themselves find out. They examined the Naturalistic Driving Study for SHRP 2. This study had 254 participants age 16 and 17 years old. The participants were recruited across 6 states and were given $500 yearly for staying in the study. To start the study, data collecting devices (DAS) were installed in each of the participant’s cars. Cameras and acceleration measuring devices were also used in this study. …show more content…
This was the group Obrien and his group decided to study. After looking at date from the devices installed in the cars, the results came in and were kind of expected. The crash changed the teens driving style almost immediately. The first 2 months, collision-involved participants opted to drive safely. They didn’t have high acceleration events. By the third month however, the teens started to back to their old driving habits. There were more reports of high accelerated events. The study shows that having a severe crash has an effect on teen’s driving behavior for a short period of time, but they eventually go back to their old driving