Publication

Sovning bak rattet. Kan Protection Motivation Theory og kunnskap om tretthet forklare forskjeller i bilføreres forebyggende tiltak mot tretthet?

Previous research has shown that falling asleep at the wheel is an important cause of car accidents. The incidence estimates found in the research literature vary between 20 %-50 %. A questionnaire study was carried out by TØI (Institute of Transport Economics). 45 % of the survey respondents had fallen asleep at the wheel of a car, and 20 % had fallen asleep at the wheel in the past 12 months. Fatigue and sleepiness is not perceived as a problem, therefore it might be interesting to find out why people choose to drive even though they know that they are too tired to drive. It is especially dangerous because drivers do not view it as a hazardous condition and often do not realize how sleepy or fatigued they are. In this thesis I wanted to find out if Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), which is a health behaviour model, and knowledge of driver sleepiness are related to preventive measures that drivers carry out. This may have implications for preventive road safety work. In this thesis the main focus is on PMT components which are severity, vulnerability, rewards, self-efficacy, response efficacy and response cost, and if these may explain and predict driver sleepiness. The results indicate that the drivers in this questionnaire in general have a good knowledge of the various factors influencing the risk of falling asleep while driving. Most of the drivers are aware of the most effective measures to prevent driver fatigue and sleepiness, such as stopping the car and taking a nap. However most of the drivers continue driving and engage in less effective measures. Time pressures due to work and the wish to arrive at a reasonable time are the most reported reasons for continuing driving while fatigued. Drowsy driving is positively correlated with vulnerability and subjective norm. There were significant gender differences. Women had higher scores on self-efficacy, maladaptive behaviour, maladaptive interaction and response cost.

Author(s)
Almaz Asfaha
Research area
Safety performance evaluation
Publication type
Master's thesis
Year of publication
2014