Setting research priorities to achieve long-term national road safety goals in Iran

Distraction and related risk factors among professional and non-professional drivers

Background

Distraction is one of the main driver's behavioral factors that reduces the performance of the drivers and might increase the accident risk. Distraction while driving holds significant importance, especially among professional drivers, and failure to address this matter may result in adverse implications for traffic safety. The present study was conducted to investigate distraction and related risk factors between two groups of private vehicle drivers and taxi drivers.

Methods

This analytical cross-sectional study was carried out in Tabriz, Iran in 2022. The total sample size in this study was 701 taxi drivers, professional drivers, and private vehicle drivers. The independent samples t-test was used to determine the statistically significant difference between groups and its sub-scales between the two studied groups. Moreover, the multivariable linear regression analysis was used to determine the predictors that affect distraction score. The test's level of significance was considered at 0.05.

Results

The mean distraction score among taxi drivers surpasses that of private vehicle drivers (2.82 vs. 2.32, p-value<0.05). The drivers with negative scores, over the past year, among private vehicle drivers and taxi drivers were 2.5 % and 5.2 %, respectively (p-value<0.05). A group of taxi drivers exhibits a higher level of distraction while driving and the mean distraction score for private vehicle drivers is lower than that of taxi drivers (β = -0.11, CI 95 %: 0.17, -0.05). Also, a history of damage or injury accidents has a significant impact on distraction while driving (β = 0.12, CI 95 %; 0.06-0.17).

Conclusions

The results indicate that distraction while driving is high amongst taxi drivers rather than private vehicle drivers. To have effective driver safety promotion interventions, it is recommended to consider driver distraction based on professional and non-professional drivers.

PERSIAN traffic safety and health cohort: a population-based precrash cohort study

PURPOSE

Despite to high burden of road traffic injuries (RTIs), the RTI epidemiology has received less attention with rare investments on robust population cohorts. The PERSIAN Traffic Safety and Health Cohort (PTSHC) was designed to assess the potential causal relationships between human factors and RTI mortality, injuries, severity of the injury, hospitalised injury, violation of traffic law as well as offer the strongest scientific evidence.

PARTICIPANTS

The precrash cohort study is carried out in four cities of Tabriz, Jolfa, Shabestar and Osku in East Azerbaijan province located in northwest Iran. The participants were people who sampled among the general population. The cluster sampling method was used to enrol the households in this study. The PTSHC encompasses a wide and comprehensive range and types of data. These include not only the common cohort data collections such as medical examination measures, previous medical history, bio assays and behavioural assessments but also includes data obtained using advanced novel technologies, for example, electronic travel monitoring, driving simulation and neuro-psycho-physiologic laboratory assessments specifically developed for traffic health field.

FINDINGS TO DATE

A total of 7200 participants aged 14 years and above were enrolled at baseline, nearly half of them being men. The mean age of participants was 39.2 (SD=19.9) years. The majority of participants (55.4%) belonged to the age group of 30-56 years. Currently, approximately 1 200 000 person-measurements have been collected.

FUTURE PLANS

PSTHC will be used to determine the human-related risk factors by adjusting for the vehicle and land-use-related factors. Therefore, a lot of crashes can be prevented using effective interventions. Although this cohort provides valuable data, it is planned to increase its size to achieve the highest level of evidence with higher generalisability. Also, according to the national agreement this cohort is going to be extended to several geographical regions in second decade.