The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research has embarked on the development of a fixed-based driving simulator that can be reconfigured easily to suit various road safety research requirements. The objective of this study is to measure driver distraction in terms of participants' response time for different road conditions and secondary tasks using a driving simulator. Three different simulation routes were designed in the study-expressway, off-ramp, and curved road. Thirty participants took part in the study. Two types of detection response task were used in the study-tactile and visual. Recall number, surrogate reference task, navigation, and texting were used as secondary tasks. The results showed that in terms of road segments, both types of detection response task were found to be sensitive; longer response times were observed for more demanding off-ramp and curved road sections when compared with expressway. Furthermore, for secondary tasks, the participants took longer to respond to both stimuli, particularly for the more difficult task followed by an easier task. In general, response times increased as a function of road segments as well as exposure to secondary tasks.Keywords: Driving simulator; driver distraction; response time; secondary task; road safety.
INTRODUCTIONIn 2012, 6,917 fatalities were recorded in Malaysia due to road crashes, with an average of 18 people killed every day [1]. This is not only happening in this country but also worldwide, as road traffic injury is the eleventh leading cause of death, and over one million people are killed every year in road crashes [2]. A previous study showed that human errors are the major contributing factor in approximately 90% of road traffic accidents [3]; driver distraction is a significant contributor to road traffic accidents [4,5]. Naturalistic driving studies have demonstrated that drivers have a tendency to spend a vast amount of driving time doing secondary tasks. According to research, approximately 23% of all crashes and near-crashes were caused by distraction due to secondary tasks [6]. Driving performance begins to deteriorate when drivers fail to allocate sufficient attention to the driving task at critical moments, because they are engaged in another task, thereby resulting in an impairment of the ability to drive safely and effectively [7,8]. One of the prominent tools to study human-related issues specifically for driver distraction is a driving simulator. It is able to simulate a virtual driving environment and resemble real driving conditions [9][10][11]. The advantages of