The Role Of Situation Awareness In Accident Prevention

This chapter reviews the literature on distracted driving and makes the case that the focus of the research and legislation designed to prevent accidents is often misdirected. For instance, as of now (or in the near future) the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (2007) noted that only six U.S. states have bans on handheld cellular phone use among drivers, but none of these states ban the use of hands-free cellular phones. These laws appear to address accident prevention by ensuring that drivers have both hands free to operate their vehicles. However, recent studies have shown that visual and cognitive distractions (rather than occupied hands) are the main contributing factors to traffic accidents in which cellular phones were currently in use. In fact, several studies have shown that impaired driving performance is just as likely to occur whether the phone is held or hands-free (e.g., Horrey & Wickens, 2006). The current chapter argues that cellular phones (and other nonessential devices) contribute to traffic accidents by impairing drivers' situation awareness (SA). That is, conversing with an individual who is not in the car, and who is therefore unable to alter the conversation based on current driving conditions, impairs drivers' ability to identify, attend to, and quickly react to relevant environmental stimuli and situations. Though situation awareness has been studied extensively in military pilots, this research is only recently being applied to the population of drivers. The relevance of SA to safe driving and potential methods for maintaining SA are addressed. These methods include technological advances such as tactile cueing and warning systems, as well as often overlooked psychological approaches for improving concentration.