ABSTRACT
The disproportionally high risk of accident involvement among young drivers is still an unsolved problem. Thus, it is a main topic in discussions about the reorganization of driver education in Germany. In the present research project, funded by the German Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), we derived a model to forecast offences and accident involvement among young drivers. The aim is to look at indicators of the development of driving competence and their influences on the risk of offences and accident involvement, controlling for personal characteristics like motives, attitudes and factual knowledge (Gregersen and Bjurulf, 1996; Keskinen et al, 1999; Leutner and Brünken, 2002). Evaluating the model, we developed an instrument that includes a questionnaire and two computer-based tests tapping perception and driving behaviour. The questionnaire contains items on driver attributes, on characteristics of driving behaviour, on driving-related factual knowledge and on personal beliefs (about traffic, safety and own skills), predicting the amount of self-reported offences and accidents. This instrument has been applied in a longitudinal study with about 2000 young drivers. The topic of the paper will be the presentation of the questionnaire and a report of selected findings from this study.
