In this post, we present the results from a research study on using psychometric tests to predict road traffic accidents (RTA) at a local company in Zimbabwe. The impact of accidents is grave: it impacts the drivers, client property, insurance rates and the vehicles they operate. We tested 54 drivers using different psychometric tests to find out if we could predict superior driving performance for new hires. The surprising results totally changed the way our client hired new drivers.
To do this we tested 54 drivers from a local company in Zimbabwe using the Fitness To Drive Plus Vienna Test System. Each driver’s test results were then matched with his/her record of road traffic accidents from 2014 to 2015. This allowed us to build a logistic regression model (using psychometric results and accident records) that distinguishes good drivers from bad drivers.
Objectives
The main objective of the research is to ascertain the psychometric attributes can be used to identify if an individual is a good or bad driver. The logistic regression model that is subsequently built is meant to quantify a driver’s proneness to accidents using their Psychometric Test scores.
Key Findings
- We established that psychometric attributes of an individual can be used to predict proneness to road traffic accidents.
- We built a logistic regression model that distinguishes drivers who had a road traffic accident record and drivers who did not have a record with an accuracy rate of approximately 72%.
- Concentration and Reactive Stress Tolerance dimensions had a statistically significant relationship with road traffic accident records.
- There was no significant evidence in the data that we analysed to suggest that holders of a Defensive Driving Certificate (DDC) are less prone to accidents than non-holders. In other words, there was no significant evidence to suggest that holders of a DDC are better drivers than non-holders of a DDC.
- The age of a driver and the number of years an individual has had a driver’s license have fairly significant relationships with the number of RTA. In other words older and more experienced drivers are likely to have less accidents than younger and less experienced drivers.
Who was involved in more accidents?
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