00781563

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/1694-04

http://scholar.google.com...aleh&publication_year=1999

Despite multidimensional efforts to improve road traffic safety in Kuwait, traffic violations and road accidents have increased steadily in recent years. Official statistics, although incomplete, indicate that the rates of road accident and accident fatalities in Kuwait are three to four times those in the United States. It is argued that the rapidly growing use of mobile phones by drivers has added a new dimension to the complexity of the driving task and further contributes to the deterioration of road safety, particularly in undisciplined driving environments like Kuwait's. A random sample of 2,000 drivers was surveyed. Data on socioeconomic traits and on mobile phone availability, frequency of use, and contribution to road accidents were obtained. Seventy-three percent of the sample drivers owned a mobile phone, has owned it for nearly 2.5 years, and had made 1.4 calls during an average daily trip. An average individual in the sample had been involved in 0.4 road accidents since acquiring a mobile phone; 0.21 accidents occurred while he or she or the other driver(s) was using a mobile phone. It is strongly recommended that driver mobile-phone use be banned while the driver's vehicle is in motion.

This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1694, Research on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Human Factors, and Advanced Traveler Information System Design and Effects.

English

p. 27-33

1999

Transportation Research Record

0309071216

Figures (7) ; References (21) ; Tables (4)

Crash rates; Data collection; Driving; Fatalities; Impact studies; Mobile telephones; Recommendations; Surveys; Traffic safety

Kuwait

Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 1 2000 12:00AM

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