New Zealand's experimental driver ed program
By: Barry Kirkwood
Date: 1992-09-09
Dr. Barry Kirkwood is in the Department of Psychology, The University of Auckland, New Zealand.
New Zealand is the third most motorized country in the world. Motor vehicle accident rates are somewhat higher than in comparable nations, are the most common cause of death by injury, and account for almost half the mortality of young adults. The young adult deaths tend to occur in a social/recreational context: mainly at night, with alcohol involved, and frequently with passengers in the car.
Secondary school programs for young drivers are attractive since this group shows the greatest potential for improvement, and any improvement can be expected to carry on into later life, resulting in a general raising of driving standards. But research into the effectiveness of North American high school school driving programs indicates that they have failed to improve MVA rates. This may be due to the courses being oriented to developing competency rather than the psychological development of the learner driver.
The experimental driver education project at Glenfield College in Auckland, NZ, sponsored by Caltex Oil (NZ), is known as the "Star Driver" program. Program developers see driver education as a health promotion measure presenting conceptual and practical problems similiar to those in other school health and social education programs intended to develop responsible behaviour in relation to diet, smoking, alcohol, and sexuality.
Like many other health behaviour programs, notably Jessor's problem behaviour concept, "Star Driver" is based on Bandura's social cognitive learning theory. This contends that behaviour is developed and maintained by the interplay of behavioural, personal, and environmental factors.
"Star Driver" has been in operation since the start of 1988, with about 250 students aged 15-16 (minimum licence age in NZ) completing the program to date. Each student has 50 hours in-class, learning self-management techniques related to driving plus a minimum of 12 hours individual driving with a professional instructor.
In the "Star Driver" program, pupils are given information about how crash rates relate to age and sex of drivers, time of the day, role of alcohol and so on. Pupils are taught some features of human risk perception, such as our tendency to underestimate the hazards with familiar things which also bring benefits (such as cars) and to overestimate the dangers of unusual hazards such as wild animals.
Pupils then learn about the consequences of bad driving by personal observation, being given projects such as spending the day with a person of their own age who has been disabled as a result of a vehicle crash. Students are required to write reports on their experiences which are then discussed in class.
The next module deals with issues of drinking and driving and has the goals of encouraging students not to drink and drive, not to ride with someone who has been drinking, not to allow others to drive drunk, and to give students skills to achieve these goals. Students are taught assertion techniques, and they brain-storm alternatives to being driven by a drunk person.
Based on pilot judgment training, our driver judgment training focuses on key dangerous attitudes (for example, thrill-seeking, impulsiveness), teaching people to monitor themselves and counter such patterns. Poor judgments are a symptom of stress; therefore stress management techniques are a part of our program.
Finally, students in the "Star Driver" program receive positive encouragement to experience personal challenge and excitement in sports and recreation rather than at the wheel of a motor vehicle on the public road.
The "Star Driver" program gives every participant a minimum of 12 hours practical driving skills under the supervision of a professional instructor in a dual-control Nissan Sentra car. Development of skills proceeds by stages, and pupils do not move on to more complex skills until a satisfactory performance on basic skills has been achieved. The driving skills program is strongly influenced by proven programs developed for the British Army and the London Metropolitan Police.
Additional vehicle handling training is given on Saturday, with parent volunteers acting as instructors. Students also do "homework driving" supervised by parents in the family car. Homework driving also works to a set program. All progress is logged stage by stage. Parental response to this program has been extremely positive, with some unexpected spinoffs. Parents report their own driving and safety consciousness has improved as a result of working in the program.
"Star Driver" is being intensively researched. Short objective tests monitor students' retention of classroom course content, and all pupils fill in anonymous course appraisal forms for the various modules, as well as for the program as a whole. An anonymous questionnaire is also given to parents. Parents and pupils make a contract to keep a log of driving distance and conditions, and report collisions and other incidents for a period of two years after the course. Confidentiality of this record is guaranteed.
The evaluation program was planned as a quasi-experimental treatment group versus control group design. High attrition from the control group crippled this design. At the time of writing, logbooks from the 1988 cohorts have just been returned. Preliminary analysis from 82 students (164 driver years) shows they logged almost half a million kilometres in 2 years (9km/student/day). There were 45 minor accidents (mainly reversing collisions), a rate of one per 11,000 km. There have been 2 crashes, both single vehicle accidents, involving loss of control and extensive damage. One resulted in injury (a fractured ankle and pulled muscles in shoulder and neck). The injury accident rate is, so far, one per 1/2 million km.
In a behavioural study, 26 "Star Drivers" compared with 26 matched controls, both groups showed a similar ability in negotiating a test track, but "Star Drivers" made more safety checks and made more accurate estimates of their driving skill than did controls. These preliminary findings are encouraging.
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