A Before-After Study of the Impact of a Road Safety Training Program on Professional Drivers

Abstract

There is growing evidence that driving fatigue is a major road safety problem, causing accidents, which frequently involve fatalities and severe injuries. Professional drivers are among the road users that are defined by literature as of high risk to get involved in a fatigue-related accident. Acknowledging the findings of an extensive state-of-the-art review, the Traffic, Transportation and Logistics Laboratory of University of Thessaly implemented a training program on driving fatigue, targeting 162 professional drivers of a leading company in building materials in Greece. Through a questionnaire survey, data were collected before and after the program realization, allowing the assessment of potential behavioral changes. The impact of the training program was evaluated with the usage of descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that the program affected trainees' behavior in the positive direction of change, resulting in a statistically significant increase of the average frequency that they follow effective fatigue countermeasures.