ABSTRACT
Young novice drivers are at increased risk of driver fatigue and are overrepresented in crashes. The adolescent brain is not yet physiologically mature and needs to sleep a lot, in a similar way to that of a child. However, adolescent lifestyle is more aligned to that of an adult, which creates a mismatch between amount of sleep obtained and the amount of sleep needed. At the same time as this vulnerability to fatigue, many young adults are learning the new skill of driving. This chapter presents suggestions for how young novice drivers could best be engaged in a driver education programme on driver fatigue, and what the most important topics to cover in such an education would be. These suggestions are informed from scientific literature, seven online focus groups and six interviews with people who regularly interact with young novice drivers (for driving or non-driving-related reasons) in a manner having potential to influence behaviour. The suggestions were reviewed by six independent driver fatigue, driver education, and behaviour change experts. An effective education programme will likely, be short, use a mix of theoretical and practical exercises/examples and require repeat exposure to materials by participants.
