Psychosocial Factors as Predictors of Risky Driving Behavior andAccident Involvement among Drivers in Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

The current study examined the influence of selected psychosocial factors (alcohol /substanceuse behavior, driving anger, altruistic, and normlessness,) on risky driving behavior andaccident involvement among drivers in Oromia Region, Ethiopia. A total of 343 were selectedusing purposive and random sampling techniques to fill close-ended questionnaire consists ofbio-data, alcohol and/or substance use, driving anger, altruism, normlessness, risky drivingbehavior and accident involvement subscales. To test the proposed hypotheses, correlationcoefficient, multiple regression analysis and path analysis were utilized. Results of the studyelucidated that selected psychosocial factors, specifically driving anger or irritability,alcohol/substance use and normlesseness influence risky driving behavior of drivers. The studyalso pointed out association between risky driving behaviors and experience of collusions.Besides, the study explicated that risky driving behavior mediates the link between psychosocialfactors and road traffic accidents. Implications of the findings have been discussed in terms ofimproving drivers training curricula, and improving enforcement of traffic laws.