Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A LICENCE TO KILL

1995; Association for Computing Machinery; Volume: 16; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

2153-2192

C A Pordage,

Human-Automation Interaction and Safety

This paper explores the idea of the car as a lethal weapon, and its use by certain groups as an apparent licence to kill. It aims to show that every driver may have some tendency in this direction, while certain groups of drivers can be identified who definitely have it. These individual attitudes and behaviours are present mainly among young drivers; they seem to result at least partly from the attitudes and behaviours of society as a whole to the car. Researchers have found that the following behavioural factors contribute to young drivers' accidents: (1) social influences and interactions; (2) deliberate unsafe behaviour; (3) the 'superman' complex and 'it won't happen to me' attitude; (4) driver aggression; and (5) lack of visual hazard perception. Reasons why young drivers think and behave in this way include society's failures to: (1) train them properly in more than basic skills and effectively address their attitudes and higher skills such as hazard perception; (2) emphasise legislation and enforcement issues sufficiently; (3) avoid sending them conflicting messages; (4) assign responsibility for these problems to everyone; and (5) avoid complacency and arrogance in general attitudes to driving and safety.