Could Road Safety Education (RSE) Help Parents Protect Children? Examining Their Driving Crashes with Children on Board

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that driving behavior and traffic safety outcomes of parents may be influenced by the extent to which they receive information and education on road safety, as well as the fact of driving with their children on board, which may increase their risk perception. However, there are no studies specifically addressing the case of crashes suffered while driving with children. Hence, this study aimed to describe the relationship between road safety education-related variables and parents’ traffic safety outcomes while driving with children on board. For this cross-sectional study, data was retrieved from a sample composed of 165 Spanish parents—all of them licensed drivers—with a mean age of 45.3 years. Through binary logistic regression (logit) analysis, it was found that factors such as gender, having received road safety education (RSE), and having been sanctioned for the performance of risky driving behavior contribute to modulating the likelihood of suffering crashes while driving with children on board. Gender differences showed a riskier status for male parents. In this study, a set of risk factors explaining the involvement in traffic crashes when driving with children as passengers was identified among parents: gender, traffic sanctions, valuation, and exposure to road safety campaigns. Also, substantial limitations in the self-reported degree of received RSE were found, especially considering that risky driving behavior and traffic crash rates with children on board still have a high prevalence among parents.

Compliance, practices, and attitudes towards VTIs (Vehicle Technical Inspections) in Spain: What prevents Spanish drivers from checking up their cars?

“…Most surveyed drivers selfreported always complying with the normative in this regard, the main reasons to comply being respecting the rules and being in fear of receiving a sanction. This fact, following other aforementioned authors [5,8,17,28,29,33,34], highlights the impact of policy and legislation on driver's self-reported habits. Enforcement of laws that are consistent with the road reality continues to be essential in maintaining effectiveness and improving road safety.…”

“…Furthermore, positive/negative affects/mood may impact the response style of participants, especially when addressing issues that may seem sensitive, such as occupational traffic crashes, even when responding to anonymous questionnaires, as pointed out by Chai et al [36] and Af Wåhlberg [37] in previous studies dealing with drivers and their road safety outcomes. Also, some studies have documented the existence of substantial discordances between attitudes, self-reports, and observed behaviors of road users [8,33].…”

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Factors influencing willingness to pay for accident risk reduction among personal car drivers in Thailand

“…Among the limitations of this study is that we did not allow sociodemographics influencing the WTP of drivers, this could help relevant authorities to promote specific Road Safety Education programs [ 74 ]. Moreover, we did not include drivers under 18 years old in the analysis due to licensing laws in Thailand.…”