ABSTRACT
Distractions have always been present to compete for drivers’ attentional resources in one form or another; however, due to modern advances in microprocessor manufacturing, the reduced cost of cognitively distracting technology has entered the fray of the already established distractors and has become commonplace, thus compounding the existing problem. The net result of this cumulative bombardment on drivers’ capability is an increased potential for deaths and serious injuries. For instance, during 2011 in Northern Ireland, there was 89 road users killed or seriously injured due to Inattention or attention diverted, which includes in-car distraction related incidents (PSNI, 2012); and in the rest of Great Britain a further 82 road users lost their lives to the more concise causation factor, Distraction in vehicle (in-car distraction) (DfT, 2012), which was a rise of 19 per cent from 2010 (69-82) (DfT, 2011). According to Neyens and Boyle (2007), the true extent of this problem may be even worse, due to the prioritisation of blame for speeding and drunk in charge as causation factors from local law enforcement officials. These fatalities and serious injuries are testament to the fact that there is a significant risk from in-car distractions that are notably affecting the road death toll in Great Britain and could be mitigated using effective measures drawn from well-planned research. This was the founding rationale for the present study, which aims to understand the problem so that methods may be developed to mitigate the risk for all road users.
