University of Warwick researchers have developed an evidence-based intervention to change people’s awareness of distracted driving, while highlighting the importance of paying attention to the road.
The research draws upon statistics from the DfT, indicating that human error accounts for 69% of incidents in the UK. Notably, 39% of these arise from drivers failing to observe their surroundings properly, often due to distractions or lapses in attention while driving.
The ‘Change Blindness’ intervention was subsequently developed by Dr Melina Kunar and Professor Derrick Watson from the Warwick Department of Psychology and is designed to help drivers recognise their own limitations in observation and emphasises the importance of paying attention to the road.
The intervention is free for road safety professionals to use. To find out more and to request access, contact Dr Kunar via email.
Change blindness refers to an individual’s ability to identify a change that occurs when their vision is disturbed temporarily. For example, whilst distracted by a conversation or a rapid eye movement.
During the intervention, individuals are shown two images with a blank grey screen in between each image. The images are of a simulated driving situation in which a change was made between each image shown. For example, an approaching vehicle in the distance being removed from the scene or a change in posted speed limits.
By surveying participants perceived observational skills prior to and after undertaking the intervention, it was shown that the intervention had a positive effect on their awareness of their observational skills.
This was evidenced by a decrease in participant over-confidence after the intervention when asked whether “you/others see everything whilst driving”.
Dr Kunar, research lead, said: “All road-users need attention – be they drivers or pedestrians. Our research has found that the Change Blindness intervention is a highly effective and easy to use way to demonstrate the importance of attention for safer road use.”
The work has helped to inform driver education programmes and local road safety campaigns. The intervention has been recently adopted by the Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership which has used the intervention across secondary schools, army barracks and local authority training programmes.
Mark Ryder, Warwickshire County Council executive director for communities, said: “In Warwickshire, we are very proud of our road safety education offering and are delighted to incorporate the Change Blind Intervention into our wider programme.
“The Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership aims to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads by 50% by 2030. This intervention supports this target by raising awareness of the importance of paying attention on the roads. ‘Failure to look’ is a contributory factor in many collisions, and this resource highlights the limits of our observational abilities, encouraging all road users to stay attentive and minimise risk.”
The Change Blindness intervention has also been adopted by a number of other local authorities, including Leeds City Council and Dudley Council, who have provided positive feedback on its impact on driver awareness.
In addition, several police forces have applied the intervention to driver training schemes. This includes Gloucestershire Police, who implemented it into their advanced and refresher courses for 245 of its high-speed police drivers. Dorset Police, meanwhile, integrated the work into their Driver Awareness Scheme which has been used by over 1000 speed offenders.
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