A Study on the Risk of Driving and the Recognition and Acceptance of Conditional Driving License System for High-risk Drivers

Research Objectives: To identify the physical, cognitive, psychological characteristics that elderly drivers experience when their driving or driving cessation and to find out the acceptance and awareness of a conditional driver’s license among elderly drivers in South Korea.

Design: Cross-sectional survey study

Setting: General community

Participants: The data was collected from elderly drivers living in the community who had a driver's license over the age of 65, and ultimately 900 elderly drivers responded to the survey.

Interventions: Not applicable

Main Outcome Measures: The main outcome of this study was the characteristics of elderly drivers and the acceptance and awareness of the conditional driver’s license system.

Results: We collected information on factors that contribute to driving difficulties, such as human factors and environmental factors. Human factors were defined as physical, cognitive, visual, and psychological factors. The responses ‘Dazzle/light bleeding’(34%) and ‘Not confident in driving in specific situations such as long distance driving, highway, or driving at night’(34%) showed the highest response rate as factors causing difficulties in driving. Environmental factors were defined as 'type of road', 'driving situation', and 'climate while driving'. Participants responded that they had a lot of difficulty driving when ‘sudden stopping while driving’(40%) and when driving in bad weather.
Participants responded that driving becomes more difficult as age increases, and there is a significant difference between age groups (‘65-71 age’, ‘71-75 age’, and ‘76 years or older’). Also, depending on the disease group, there are significant differences in environmental and human factors that make driving difficult.
Among the participants, 51% did not know about conditional driver's licenses, and 46% of participants only heard of the name of the system or were only aware of the general details. Among those who responded that applying the conditional driver's license system to the elderly would reduce cases of driver's license cancellation or return, when excluding the 'average' response, the proportion of 'yes' responses was higher than 'no' responses. Excluding the ‘average’ response, the proportion of responses regarding the acceptability of the conditional driver’s license system was more ‘positive’ than ‘negative’. The conditions with the most positive opinions were ‘restrictions on vehicle-mounted functions,’ ‘speed restrictions,’ and ‘time restrictions’.

Conclusions: We were able to identify the characteristics of physical, cognitive, psychological, and environmental difficulties experienced by high-risk drivers while driving, and to determine awareness and acceptance of conditional driver's licenses according to individual characteristics. Additionally, the results of this study can be used as evidence to institutionalize conditional driver's licenses.

Author(s) Disclosures: -