The Relationship between Self-reported Traffic Crashes and Driver Behavior in the Road Transportation of Goods and Freight in Bali

Abstract

Road safety stakeholders in Bali have highlighted the need to investigate and better understand road user behavior as a means of reducing the high proportion of crashes in goods and freight distribution sector. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between self-reported driver behaviors and traffic crashes reported by drivers transporting goods and freight in Denpasar, Bali. A driving safety survey was distributed to 350 goods and freight transport drivers to obtaine a range of demographic information, self-reported crash and offence data, along with psychosocial factors data associated with driving safety. Factor analysis identified a four factor solution with distinctions between di?erent driving practices within the sample consisting of aggresive driving behaviors, driving errors, traffic code violations and normlessness. The results of this study demonstrated that normlessness consisting of behaviors such as taking a slight risk when overtaking and ignoring speed limits were the most common form of unsafe behaviors reported by the goods vehicle transport drivers. The study indicated that speeding behaviors influenced more self-reported driving errors, aggresive behaviors and traffic rule violations and traffic crashes. In addition, drink driving was found to be positively related to traffic crashes. The implications of these results are discussed.

Keywords

• Driver behaviors, Goods vehicle, Road safety, Traffic crashes