Learning With a Supervisor Who has Traffic Offences and Young Driver Crashes: The DRIVE Study 13-Year Follow-Up

Teresa Senserrick; Holger Möller; Soufiane Boufous; Mark Stevenson; Ann Williamson; George Patton; Rebecca McLean; Huei-Yang Chen; Patricia Cullen; Mark Woodward; Rebecca Ivers

doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.06.018

Learning With a Supervisor Who has Traffic Offences and Young Driver Crashes: The DRIVE Study 13-Year Follow-Up

J Adolesc Health. 2023 Nov;73(5):859-865. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.06.018. Epub 2023 Aug 28.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Western Australian Centre for Road Safety Research, School of Psychological Science, The University of Western Australia, Western Australia, Australia; Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland, School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Kelvin Grove, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: teresa.senserrick@uwa.edu.au.
² School of Population Health, The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Kensington, New South Wales, Australia; The George Institute for Global Health, The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Kensington, New South Wales, Australia.
³ Transport and Road Safety Research, School of Aviation, The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Kensington, New South Wales, Australia.
⁴ Transport Health and Urban Design Research Lab, Melbourne School of Design, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia; Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
⁵ Centre for Adolescent Development, The Royal Children's Hospital, Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Department of Paediatrics, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.
⁶ Department of Population Health, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand.
⁷ Evidence, Agency for Clinical Innovation, St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia.
⁸ School of Population Health, The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Kensington, New South Wales, Australia; The George Institute for Global Health, The University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Kensington, New South Wales, Australia; Ngarruwan Ngadju: First Peoples Health and Wellbeing Research Centre, School of Medical, Indigenous and Health Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia.
⁹ The George Institute for Global Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.

PMID: 37642621
DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.06.018

Abstract

Purpose: Young learner drivers commonly must record substantial supervised practice driving before independent licensure. Supervisory driver requirements can be limited or highly regulated, yet research is lacking on the effectiveness of different approaches. The current objective was to explore whether young drivers who were mostly supervised by someone who they perceived had traffic offences versus no offences had different crash records over a period of 13 years postlicensing.

Methods: DRIVE is an Australian prospective cohort study of more than 20,000 drivers who were aged 17-24 years and newly licensed during 2003-2004. They completed detailed baseline questionnaires, including whether the person they identified as supervising their learner driving the most had perceived traffic offences in the past 12 months. Responses were linked to their state crash, hospitalization, and death records to 2016. A parametric survival model was created to calculate hazard ratios of time to crash for those reporting that their supervisor had 0 versus 1 and 0 versus 2+ perceived offences, adjusting for the participants' prior crash history and other covariates.

Results: After adjusting for covariates, 369 participants reporting supervisory drivers with 2+ perceived offences, compared to 15,451 participants reporting no such offences, had up to 1.67 (95% confidence interval 1.10-2.53 at 6 months) times the rate of any crash for the first 2.5 years and up to 2.01 (95% confidence interval 1.26-3.19 at 3.5 years) times the rate of crashes resulting in injury for 5.5 years.

Discussion: Although overall supervision by a driver with two or more perceived offences was low, further attention is needed to ensure improved supervised driving experiences, with mentoring programs and professional instructor partnerships worthy of exploration.

Keywords: Crash injury; Driver licensing; Learner drivers; Road crash; Supervisory drivers; Survival analysis; Traffic offence; Young drivers.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Accidents, Traffic*
Australia
Automobile Driving*
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Learning
Licensure
Prospective Studies