- Dr Jyotsna Singh
Abstract:
Objective To assess & audit the association between mind wandering (thinking unrelated to the task at hand) and the risk of being responsible for a road traffic crash.
Design Responsibility case-control study.
Participants100 drivers injured in a motor vehicle crash.
Main outcome measures Responsibility for the road traffic crash, mind wandering, external distraction, negative affect, alcohol use, psychotropic drug use, and sleep deprivation. Potential confounders were socio-demographic and crash characteristics.
Results Intense mind wandering (highly disrupting/distracting content) was associated with responsibility for a traffic crash adjusted odds ratio 2.12, 95% confidence interval 1.37 to 3.28).
Conclusions Mind wandering while driving, by decoupling attention from visual and auditory perceptions, can jeopardize the ability of the driver to incorporate information from the environment, thereby threatening safety on the roads.
Introduction:
Each day thousands of millions of people perform the routine task of driving, exposing themselves and others to traffic related injuries and deaths. In developed countries such injuries have been decreasing continuously, despite rising motorization, as a result of successive traffic safety policies targeting human risk factors, the development of safer vehicles, and the improvement of road design. In recent years, however, the number of lives saved has plateaued. More action is needed to achieve further progress.
Methods:
Study design and setting:
We compared the frequency of exposures (mind wandering and confounders) between drivers responsible for the crash (cases) and drivers not responsible for the crash (controls). Cases and controls came from the same source (same period and location of recruitment). The study was conducted in the adult emergency department of various Hospitals in India in 5 states, which serves urban and rural populations of an area comprising more than 28.4 million people. Patients were recruited from April 2018 to August 2019. Trained research assistants re-created the crash scene by interviewing patients using questions regarding the crash, characteristics of the patient, and distraction.
Discussion:
Principal findings of the study:
Over half of drivers who attended an emergency department after a road traffic crash (52/48) reported some mind wandering just before the crash, and its content was highly disrupting/distracting in 126. Those reporting a highly disrupting/distracting thought content were significantly more likely to be responsible for a road crash (adjusted odds ratio 2.12, 95% confidence interval 1.37 to 3.28). This association was significant after adjustment for a range of potential confounders. Classic risk factors such as alcohol use and sleep deprivation were strongly associated with road traffic crashes. Interestingly, emerging risk factors, including external distraction, negative affect, and use of psychotropic drugs, were also associated with increased responsibility for the crash.
Strengths and weaknesses:
The responsibility case-control design, the measurement of mind wandering, and the large sample size were strengths of the study. Some limitations, however, should be taken into account in the interpretation of the results. Retrospective self reports might have underestimated the prevalence of mind wandering during the driving.
Advise:
Traffic Safety / Driver Satisfaction. Beautifying road ways can have the dual effect of increasing driver satisfaction with the roadside landscape and creating a natural median. Drivers are much less likely to accidentally drive over a median if there is a landscaped area between oncoming lanes of traffic and also increased night visibility. Beautifying traffic medians not only improves the aesthetics of the roadways, it also affects driver attitudes.
Studies show that drivers are more at ease on roadways with natural landscaping, and are much more inclined to think positively about the community that they are driving through if the roadways are beautiful. Furthermore, use of road reflective signage and stickers, and adding trees to roadways creates a sort of natural obstruction which could reduce the likelihood of cars crossing medians into oncoming traffic lanes. This improves driver safety and makes the community a safer place for everyone to live in.
Landscaped areas between oncoming lanes of traffic could decrease the number of accidents occurring due to drivers crossing the median and make the road a safer place.
Make a pause to thought process and ensure your thoughts and focus are well on road only, and it should be checked once in every 5 minutes when in city limits and every 10 minutes when on highways.
Solution:
Serious Commitment: Road Safety oath, a gentle promise for the behavior and actions on roads and also to maintain self discipline. Mother India Care is promoting road safety oath, the only organization promoting road safety oath
Road Safety Bouncer: Mind wandering can be controlled and focus can be aimed on the task at hand with Bouncer. I have done the research and invented a technology Heed-o meter and named it “Bouncer” (to control mind wandering), and its rights have been fully owned by Mother India Care.
References:
WHO. Global status report on road safety 2009. www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/road_safety_status/2009/en/index.html.
Dingus TA, Klauer SG, Neale VL, Petersen A, Lee SE, Sudweeks J, et al. DOT HS 810 593. The 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study. Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, 2006.
Farmer CM, Braitman KA, Lund AK. Cell phone use while driving and attributable crash risk. Traffic Inj Prev2010;11:466-70.
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Killingsworth MA, Gilbert DT. A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science2010;330:932.
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Schooler JW, Smallwood J, Christoff K, Handy TC, Reichle ED, Sayette MA. Meta-awareness, perceptual decoupling and the wandering mind. Trends Cogn Sci2011;15:319-26.
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Mason MF, Norton MI, Van Horn JD, Wegner DM, Grafton ST, Macrae CN. Wandering minds: the default network and stimulus-independent thought. Science2007;315:393-5.
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Christoff K. Undirected thought: neural determinants and correlates. Brain Res2012;1428:51-9.
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Robertson MD, Drummer OH. Responsibility analysis: a methodology to study the effects of drugs in driving. Accid Anal Prev1994;26:243-7.
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Adopt Road Safety Oath, a gentle promise to show the behavior and actions on road and maintain self discipline seriously & strictly.
www.motherindiacare.com/adopt_road_safety_oath
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Road Safety Bouncer, I have invented Technology to detect and also to auto trigger a BOUNCER to control mind wandering and speeding incidents. www.roadsafetyislifesafety.org/road-safety-bouncer/
Road Safety Recharge, we need to do the meditation to activate our
Conscious mind to have a Conscious Guarded Driving to reach safely. www.roadsafetyislifesafety.org/road-safety-recharge/
