Personality correlates of accident-proneness in truck drivers passing by one of the state highway of India

Authors

  • Sudhir Gowda Department of Community Medicine, Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, Mandya, Karnataka, India
  • Namith Rangaswamy Department of Community Medicine, Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, Mandya, Karnataka, India
  • Harish Bekkalele Rudresh Department of Community Medicine, Mandya Institute of Medical Sciences, Mandya, Karnataka, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20162052

Keywords:

Personality correlates, Accident proneness, Truck drivers

Abstract

Background: Over the past years, several efforts are made to establish relationship between personality characteristics and accident proneness with many researchers pursuing to construct accident proneness with personality. Current trend with exponential growth in automobile population has demanded Researchers to study about accident proneness among those drivers. With this background the following study was done with an objective of to explore the personality correlates of accident-proneness of truck drivers passing by State highway-17 of Mandya city in Indian.

Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was done in SH 17 Bangalore- Mysore highway among 200 truck drivers. The subjects included in the study were the truck drivers who were passing by SH-17 and who were able to understand Kannada or Hindi language. The data was collected by personal interview method by using semi-structured questionnaire for socio-demographic information and standard big five personality test questionnaire for personality trait of drivers.

Results: Out of 200 drivers 126 were accident prone and 74 were non accident prone drivers. Total driving hours in a day was found to be significantly higher in accident prone driver than non-accident prone. With respect to personality it was found that openness to experience and emotional instability/neuroticism was significantly associated with accident proneness.

Conclusions: In conclusion it can be said that personality trait plays an important role in accident. In order to prevent such accident it is advisable to screen such people at the time of issue of driving license for heavy vehicle itself. 

References

United Nations Decade of action for road safety 2011-2020. Available at: http://www.decadeofaction.org.

WHO. Estimates of mortality of causes for WHO members state for the year 2008, summary tables, Geneva; 2011.

World Health Organization. Road Traffic Injuries, Fact sheet N⁰ 358, March 2013, Available at:http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs358/ens.

National Crimes Records Bureau. Accidental deaths and Suicides in India 2014. Available at: http://ncrb.gov.in.

Lajunen T. Personality and accident liability: are extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism related to traffic and occupational fatalities? Pers Individ Dif. 2001;31(8):1365-73.

Issever H, Onen L, Sabuncu HH, Altunkaynak O. Personality characteristics, psychological symptoms and anxiety levels of drivers in charge of urban transportation in Istanbul. Occup Med (Lond). 2002;52(6):297-303.

Tillmann WA, Hobbs GE. The accident-prone automobile driver; a study of psychiatric and social background. Am J Psychiatry. 1949;106(5):321-31.

Panek PE, Wanger EE. Hand test Personality variables related to automotive moving violation in female drivers. J Pers Assess. 1986;50(2):208-11.

Trankle U, Gelau C, Metker T. Risk perception and age-specific accidents of young drivers. Accid Anal Prev. 1990;22(2):119-25.

Karthikeyan, Srivastava DK. The relationship between the five factors of personality, individual job performance and its components in India. IJARM. 2012;3(1):37-55.

Goldberg LR. The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. J Psychological Assessment. 1992;4:24-42.

Vanlaar W, Simpson H, Mayhew D, Robertson R. Aggressive driving: a survey of attitudes, opinions and behaviors. J Safety Research, 2008;39:375-81.

Mangalam MK, Sinha VK, Praharaj SK, Bhattacharjee D. Personality correlates of accident proneness in auto-rickshaw drivers in India. Int J of Occup saf and Ergon. 2013;19(2):159-65.

Donovan DM, Marlatt GA. Personality subtypes among driving-while-intoxicated offenders: relationship to drinking behavior and driving risk. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1982;50(2):241-9.

Anitei M, Charif M, Vlad B, Teodor M. The big five personality factor in the prediction of aggressive diving behavior among Romanian Youngsters. Int J Traf and Transp Psychol. 2015;2(1).

Hansen CP. Personality characteristics of accident involved employees. J Bus Psychol. 1998;2:346-65.

John OP, Srivastava S. The Big Five Trait Taxonomy: History, Measurement and Theoretical Perspectives. University of California, Berkley.1999.

Benfield AJ, Szlemko JW, Bell PA. Driver personality and anthropomorphic attributions of vehicle personality relate reported aggressive driving tendencies. Person Individ Diff. 2006;42:247-58.

McCare RR, Costa PT Jr. Personality in adulthood: A five factor theory perspective, 2nd ed. New-york, Guilford Press. 2006.

Arthur JW, Graziano WG. The five factor model, conscientiousness and driving accident involvement. J Person. 1996;64:593-618.

Jovanovic D, Lipovac K, Stanojevic D. The effects of personality traits on driving related anger and aggressive driving behavior among Serbian drivers. Transportation Reasearch Part F. 2009;14:43-53.

Downloads

Published

2016-12-28

How to Cite

Gowda, S., Rangaswamy, N., & Rudresh, H. B. (2016). Personality correlates of accident-proneness in truck drivers passing by one of the state highway of India. International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 3(7), 1841–1846. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20162052

Issue

Section

Original Research Articles