Young drivers' early access to their own car and crash risk into early adulthood: Findings from the DRIVE study

Huei-Yang Chen; Holger Möller; Teresa M Senserrick; Kris D Rogers; Patricia Cullen; Rebecca Q Ivers

doi:10.1016/j.aap.2024.107516

Young drivers' early access to their own car and crash risk into early adulthood: Findings from the DRIVE study

Accid Anal Prev. 2024 May:199:107516. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2024.107516. Epub 2024 Feb 24.

Authors

Huei-Yang Chen¹, Holger Möller², Teresa M Senserrick³, Kris D Rogers⁴, Patricia Cullen⁵, Rebecca Q Ivers⁶

Affiliations

¹ Evidence Directorate, Agency for Clinical Innovation, Sydney, NSW 2065, Australia. Electronic address: tom.chen@health.nsw.gov.au.
² School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, NSW 2042, Australia. Electronic address: H.moeller@unsw.edu.au.
³ Western Australian Centre for Road Safety Research, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia. Electronic address: teresa.senserrick@uwa.edu.au.
⁴ School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, NSW 2042, Australia; Graduate School of Health, The University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Electronic address: Kris.rogers@uts.edu.au.
⁵ School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, NSW 2042, Australia; Ngarruwan Ngadju: First Peoples Health and Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. Electronic address: Patricia.cullen@unsw.edu.au.
⁶ School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia; The George Institute for Global Health, Sydney, NSW 2042, Australia. Electronic address: Rebecca.ivers@unsw.edu.au.

PMID: 38401242
DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2024.107516

Abstract

Introduction: Car ownership at early licensure for young drivers has been identified as a crash risk factor, but for how long this risk persists is unknown. This study examined crash hazard rates between young drivers with their own vehicle and those who shared a family vehicle at early licensure over 13 years.

Methods: The DRIVE study, a 2003/04 survey of 20,806 young novice drivers in New South Wales, Australia was used to link to police crash, hospital and death records up to 2016. The first police-reported crash and crash resulting in hospitalisation/death was modelled via flexible parametric survival analysis by type of vehicle access at baseline (own vs. shared family vehicle).

Results: After adjusting for covariates, drivers with their own vehicle at early licensure had an almost 30 % increased hazard rate for any crash after one year (95 % CI:1.16-1.42) compared with those who only had access to a family car and this attenuated but remained significantly higher until year 7 (HR: 1.1, 95 % CI: >1.00-1.20). For crashes resulting in hospitalisation or death, an almost 15-times higher hazard (95 % CI: 1.40-158.17) was observed at the start of follow up, remaining 50 % to year 3 (95 % CI:1.01-2.18).

Conclusions: Parents and young drivers should be aware of the increased risks involved in car ownership at early licensure. Development of poorer driving habits has been associated with less parental monitoring at this time. Graduated Driving Licensing educators, researchers and stakeholders should seek to address this and to identify improved safety management options.

Keywords: Car access/ownership; Car crash; Parametric survival model; The DRIVE study; Young adulthood; Young drivers.

MeSH terms

Accidents, Traffic*
Adult
Australia
Automobiles*
Awareness
Habits
Humans