ABSTRACT

News stories regarding traffic accidents are extremely common in the daily media and we often ask ourselves why do these accidents happen? Looking at the German Federal Statistics on traffic accidents it becomes obvious that more than 90 per cent of all crashes involving injuries are due to human error (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2012). Generally, the police are not in a position to fully investigate these apparent errors and as a consequence many important causes are not included in the official statistics. Therefore, most motor vehicle accidents leave many questions unanswered, such as: what happened right before the accident?; why did the collision occur at all?; was the driver distracted?; was he/she experiencing stress – due to private or work-related issues?; was the situation perceived as risky?; or even was the risk taken deliberately?