Reliability of Self-Reported Road Crash and Violation Data of Professional Drivers: The Case of Qatar

Arshi, Abubeker Nemo; Alhajyaseen, Wael; Mamo, Wondwesen Girma · 2024 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1016/j.procs.2024.06.011

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Summary

This study evaluates the reliability of self-reported road traffic crashes (RTCs) and traffic violations among professional drivers in Qatar, addressing concerns that inaccuracies in crash data compromise road safety analyses. While official records often suffer from underreporting, self-reported data is widely used but potentially biased by memory errors, social desirability, and subjective judgment. The research specifically investigates whether self-reported data aligns with official records from the General Directorate of Traffic and how this reliability varies by driver type (taxi vs. bus) and socio-demographic factors. The study surveyed 566 professional drivers employed by Karwa driving school, comprising 361 taxi drivers and 206 bus drivers. Participants completed a questionnaire in July 2021 reporting crashes and violations from the preceding year (July 2020–June 2021). These self-reports were compared against actual official records for the same drivers over a two-year period (2020–2021), which were averaged to match the one-year self-report timeframe. Statistical analysis employed the Wilcoxon signed-rank test to assess significant differences between self-reported and actual data across categories including nationality, age, education level, and driving experience. Results revealed significant discrepancies between self-reported and actual RTC data for taxi drivers across all ethnic, age, education, and experience groups (p < 0.001), indicating systematic underreporting. For taxi drivers, self-reported violation data was generally reliable, except for drivers from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In contrast, bus drivers provided self-reported RTC data that largely aligned with official records, with the notable exception of Sri Lankan drivers who reported zero crashes despite official records showing otherwise. Bus drivers, however, showed significant underreporting in traffic violations, particularly among those with elementary education, younger age groups, and those with less than 10 years of general driving experience. The findings demonstrate that the reliability of self-reported crash data is not uniform and depends heavily on driver profession and demographic characteristics. Taxi drivers consistently underreported crashes, while bus drivers were more accurate regarding crashes but less reliable regarding violations. These variations imply that using self-reported data without accounting for these biases can distort road safety research and prevention strategies. The study highlights the need for caution when interpreting self-reported data, particularly for specific demographic subgroups, and suggests that official records may be more reliable for certain metrics depending on the driver population.

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Topics

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• sex gender
• incidence prevalence
• dbq psychometrics
• induced exposure
• cultural cross national
• naturalistic crash near crash

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes, observational prevalence
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource