The Correlation Of Aggressive Driving And Traffic Accidents

Personal factors are more important to traffic accidents than the vehicle and road. With driving congestion in large cities being worsening, stress and aggressive driving among drivers are widespread. Aggressive driving (or driver aggression) has been defined as any behavior intended to physically, psychologically, or emotionally, harm others within the driving environment, including drivers, passengers, and pedestrians, such as tailgating to punish another driver, swearing, and yelling. The immediate outcome of aggressive driving is less severe than that with violence, so we call them Mild Aggression, but aggressive driving is typically more common among drivers. In American, there are at least 1500 people had been injured or killed by aggressive driving every year, and approximately 30% of the drivers accepted that they have engaged in aggressive driving some times. The authorities dealing with automobile travel and traffic safety have identified aggressive driving as a risky factor for motor vehicle accident morbidity and mortality on a par with alcohol impaired driving. China is one of the most dangerous countries to drive with regards to collision and deaths due to collisions. There is comparatively little current knowledge of the process and results of aggressive driving in China. With the growing trend of vehicle ownership, there is an increased need to understand the processes and results ofaggressive driving in China. Therefore, there are more practical value to study effects of aggressive driving on traffic safety and the social-psych-physical affection of aggressive driving.Cooperating with Dr. Hennessy, we translated a series of aggressive driving measures in China, and revised it to suit the Chinese culture and traffic environment, and tested the reliability and validity. Studied the aggressive driving at first time in China is to determine the relationship between the aggressive driving and traffic accidents. In present study, we investigated the demographic and psychological characteristics of aggressive drivers by means of the crowd epidemiological survey. We further detected polymorphic variation in the gene for Monoamine Oxidase-A, Serum testosterone, and autonomic balance index test, to find their relationship with aggressive driving. The study would be helpful for screening aggressive driver, and help to preventing the traffic collisions.1 The Reliability and Validity of Aggressive Driving Measures in Chinese VersionGiven China's unique cultural perspective from western cultures, the present studies were designed to test the reliability and validity of the Driving Vengeance Questionnaires (DVQ), Self-Report Driver Behavior (Aggression and Assertiveness subscales), the Violent Driving Questionnaires, Deffenbacher's Driving Anger Scale, and Driver Stress Scale in Chinese version. A total of 353 automobile drivers were investigated with aggressive driving measures, 41 individuals took the tests twice with two week between tests. Result showed that: (D the aggressive driving measures embodied the affective aggression theory,evaluated a general susceptibility to driving stress, anger, vengeful driving reactions, and aggressive behavior. ?Drivers with type A behavior indicated high level of aggressive driving than type B. (3)We also found significant correlation between the scales scores and number of self-reported vehicle accidents over the past 12 months. ?Scores of each scale correlated significant with scores on Seigel's Multidimensional Anger Inventory which was taken as the criterion. (5) The factor structures of each scale was consistent with the content means that these variables represent distinct constructs. ?The test-retest reliability of the scales, varying from 0.84 to 0.93, seemed acceptable. ?Cronbach alpha of 0.76-0.92 indicate a good internal consistency.To sum up, the aggressive driving measures were reliable, valid and wieldy and could be applied to assessing the driver's aggression in Chinese.2 The Demographic and Psychological Characteristics of Aggressive DriverWith the cluster random sampling method, a total of 1631 automobile drivers were investigated with scales of Driving Vengeance Questionnaire (DVQ), self-report Driver Behavior, Driver Violence, Driver Anger, Driver Stress, Type A Behavior Pattern, and demographic characteristics, driving experience, et al. Firstly, make the Composite Driver Aggression Index by means of principal component analysis. Secondly, analysis the demographic and psychological characteristics of aggressive driver. Result showed that the scores of Self-report Driver Behavior (Xi), and Driver Violence (X2), Driver Vengeance (X3)correlated significantly with each other (Pearson=0.41~0.51? P<0.01). Each of these scales also differentiated the driver with or without aggressive driving. A Principal Component Analysis abstracted one principal component from the three aggressive behavior measures, it's 00.102 Xi+0.367 X2+0.089 X3-2.337, according to the equation, a composite driver aggression index was derived.A Multiple Linear Regression Analysis (Stepwise) found out that the composite driver aggression index was predicted by main effects of driver anger, driver stress, type A hostility, type A time hurry. We also found that the smokers and drinkers were more aggressive than the nonsmoker and nondrinker group, as well as the young drivers were more aggressive than the old. Suggestions were made for the use of the composite aggressive driving index in the screening of aggressive drivers. Exploring the demographic and psychological characteristic of aggressive driver, it was advantageous to study the interfere method to prevent the traffic collisions.3 The Biological Characteristics of Aggressive DriversAccording to the results from studies mentioned above, this study presented preliminary evidence of an association between aggressive driving and functional polymorphism in the promoter of Monoamine Oxidase-A (MAOA) gene, serum testosterone and autonomic balance ability. A total of 348 automobile drivers were investigated with driving vengeance questionnaires (DVQ), self-report driver behavior questionnaires, and violent driving questionnaires. We selected the more and less aggressive drivers (88 each) as subjects. Polymerase ChainReaction (PCR) and 2.5% agarose gel was adopted to detect the genotype of functional 30bp-uVNTR in the promoter region of the X-chromosomal MAOA gene. MAOA is a mitochondrial enzyme that oxidizes 5-HT and Norepinephine as well as Dopamine. A functional 30bp variable number of tandem repeats (30bp-uVNTR) polymorphism was identified in the promoter region of the human MAOA gene that differentially modulated gene transcription. The transcriptional efficiency of the three-repeat allele was two-fold lower than those with longer repeats, and enzyme activity was correlated with repeat length. Result showed that two alleles (3 or 4 repeats) were detected in our study. Among the more aggressive group, 3 repeats of 30 bp-uVNTR (63/88) were significantly more frequent than 4 repeats (25/88) ( -*-2=10.21, P<0.01) , and the scores of 3 repeats of 30bp-uVNTR group were significantly higher than that of 4 repeats. It indicated that driver aggressive was correlated with the MAOA enzyme lower activity. The drivers with three repeats of 30bp-uVNTR were prone to more aggressive than with four repeats. Besides the MAOA gene, we also found that serum testosterone was positive correlated with driver aggression in men. Balance index tests showed that the aggressive group had less autonomic balance than the control.4 The relationship of aggressive driving and traffic accidentsWith the case-control study, the accident was defined as any type of crash for which the driver had born responsibility in the last 3 years. 429 drivers with accidents were sampled in a group as observed subjects, and 643 drivers without accidents were sampled as control group. They were investigated with the scales of being studied in section 1, as well asdriver drowsing questionnaires. Results showed that the scores of aggressive driving index, driver drowsing, driver stress, driver anger, and smoking, drinking in accidents group were significant higher than that of the controls. The number of vehicle accidents correlated significantly with the scores of driver aggression index, driver drowsing, drinking, and driving hours of every week, et al (PO.05). A logistic analysis (Forward: LR) found out that aggressive driving index (xi), drinking (X2), education (X3), the driving hour (x4), and drowsing (x5) could be used to predict the traffic accidents (PO.01). The equation is Logit (P)=0.25 xi + 0.68 x2— 0.10 X3+0.07 X4+0.02 x5—0.68, It could be seen from the equation that the more aggressive the driver was, the more prone to accident.In short, we persisted that the human was the first, and found out the relations between traffic accidents and human factors such as aggressive driving, driving drowsing, drinking, et al. and had made up a composite aggressive driving index to screen the aggressive drivers. The drivers with three repeats of 30bp-uVNTR were prone to more aggressive than others. The study would help to select the driver with accident proneness, and prevent the traffic collisions.