title: Motor vehicle accidents, fatigue and optimism bias in taxi drivers.
abstract: Fatigue-related variables and their relationship with accident involvement were examined in a group of 42 Sydney metropolitan taxi drivers across a 2-year period. Advantages associated with the study of this group of road users include their important role in public transport, long hours spent on the road, job-related controls of exposure through shift patterns and the ability to verify accidents with company insurance records. Number and length of breaks, employment type, falling asleep at the wheel and a variety of other job-related and attitudinal variables were surveyed. Results provide basic data on fatigue-related aspects of the job of taxi driving. Driver time-on-the-road is often considerable: 67% of those surveyed drove at least 50 hours per week, yet time off in long shifts (up to 12 hours) was often short (as low as 3 minutes, with an average of 37 minutes). Self report of accidents proved reliable against insurance company records. A significant negative correlation between total average break time and accident rate was observed. Optimism bias was present for a variety of driving-related questions, including the ability to drive safely while fatigued.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Dalziel
authors.forename: R F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Job
mesh_terms: D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001364:Awareness; D015984:Causality; D005221:Fatigue / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009517:New South Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D014186:Transportation; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology