Integrated training to improve young novice drivers' hazard management and speed management skills: a driving simulator study

Deficits in hazard management (HM) and speed management (SM) skills are widely recognised as key contributing factors in young novice drivers' crash involvement. Although existing training programmes effectively target individual safety skills, such as HM, transfer of training benefits remains limited. This research examines an integrated training technique designed to improve HM and SM skills concurrently. One hundred and eight young drivers were randomly assigned to one of six training conditions: (1) Control, (2) SM Feedback, (3) HM Training with HM Feedback, (4) HM Training with Hazard Perception (HP) and Hazard Projection (HPr) Feedback, (5) HM Training with HP Feedback, and (6) Integrated Training with HM and SM Feedback. HM and SM performance were evaluated immediately and one-week post-training, using a fixed-based driving simulator. Results demonstrated that the integrated training, coupled with HM and SM feedback, significantly improved young drivers' performance across both targeted skills. This training yielded positive improvement in HM across all three hazard types (i.e., visible hazard – Behavioural Prediction; BP; hidden hazard – Environmental Prediction; EP; and divided attention hazard – including one or both BP and EP), along with SM in both low (50 km/h) and high (80 km/h) speed zones. This effect was evident one-week post-training. Regarding the specific instructional design of the training, the data revealed benefits of limiting HM feedback to only hazard perception (HP) and hazard prediction (HPr), as opposed to action. The findings indicate that integrating HM and SM training can enhance two distinct but complementary driving skills, offering a more efficient alternative to single-skill training for improving road safety among young drivers.