CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RISKY DRIVER IN THE STATE OF MARYLAND

The study's primary objective is to identify the major risky driving attributes from the State of Maryland driving population. The motivation for the study is that by identifying the risky driver population cohorts, the Motor Vehicle Administration of Maryland can develop and proactively implement effective treatment programs. A second objective of the study is to document, from a nationwide survey of licensing requirements, existing and planned mitigation programs for risky driving. The information on high risk driver programs from the survey was used as a guide to recommend a model program for the State of Maryland. Traffic accident related problems nationwide result in billions of dollars of productivity and property losses annually. Studies have shown that most traffic accidents are caused by driver related factors and hence are preventable. The major contributing causes for at fault driver accidents include speeding, reckless driving, inattentiveness, driving too closely, inadequate reflexes, and inexperience. These causes can be attributed to one or more of the frequently cited demographic, environmental, and/or socioeconomic exogenous factors. The demographic factors frequently cited in the literature include a driver's age and gender; the environmental factors include the population density of the driver's place of residence/employment; and the socioeconomic factors include substance abuse and education level.