Sociocultural factors affecting the incidence of road traffic crashes among drivers: An exploratory qualitative study

Masoumi, Gholamreza; Zavareh, Davoud Khorasani; Haghdoust, Zahra; Ebadi, Abbas; Moslehi, Shandiz · 2025 · DOAJ (Archives of Trauma Research)

DOI: 10.48307/atr.2025.518101.1222

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Summary

This exploratory qualitative study investigates the sociocultural factors (SCFs) influencing the incidence of road traffic crashes (RTCs) among drivers in Iran. The research was motivated by the disproportionate burden of RTCs in low- and middle-income countries, particularly Iran, where human factors contribute to up to 95% of crashes. Despite government efforts in infrastructure and regulation, RTCs remain the leading cause of injury and the second leading cause of death in the country. The study aimed to fill a gap in existing literature, which is heavily skewed toward high-income countries, by identifying unique sociocultural determinants of crash risk based on stakeholder experiences. The study employed a qualitative design using conventional content analysis. Data were collected through 25 semi-structured interviews conducted between May and September 2021 with experts and specialists in road traffic, psychology, and sociology. Participants were selected via purposive sampling with maximum variation, representing diverse organizational levels including traffic police, medical centers, insurance organizations, and trauma research centers. Interviews lasted an average of 34 minutes and continued until conceptual saturation was reached. Data were transcribed verbatim and manually analyzed using the Graneheim and Lundman approach, with trustworthiness ensured through member checks, peer reviews, and detailed process descriptions. The analysis yielded four main categories and 13 sub-categories of SCFs. First, sociodemographic factors included economic status, age, and gender; financial poverty was linked to psychological stress and aggressive driving, while young drivers exhibited higher risk-taking, and women were noted to increasingly adopt reckless behaviors to compensate for social humiliation. Second, personality traits such as sensation-seeking, violence, anger, anxiety, and selfishness were identified as distal predictors of risky behavior. Third, driver behaviors included inadequate adherence to traffic laws, insistence on violations despite awareness of rules, malice or revenge against social injustice, and mental preoccupation or distraction. Fourth, driver performance encompassed perceptual-motor skills and safety skills, with participants noting that drivers often overestimate their abilities or neglect safety protocols once licensed. The findings conclude that SCFs originate from individual characteristics, psychological status, public culture, and the enforcement of traffic laws. The study highlights that financial instability, social influences, and ingrained norms of lawlessness significantly contribute to RTCs. Implications for the field include the need for multifaceted interventions: strengthening traffic culture through family and educational systems, addressing economic drivers of stress, enforcing laws strictly, and implementing targeted education on anger management and safe driving skills. The authors recommend further research to refine the identification and management of these factors from the perspective of drivers themselves.

Key finding

Sociocultural factors influencing road traffic crashes among Iranian drivers cluster into four domains — sociodemographic factors, personality traits, driver behavior, and driver skills — with mental preoccupation, distraction, anger/aggression, and weak adherence to traffic laws emerging as recurrent behavioral pathways from culture to crash risk.

Methodology

theoretical

Sample size: 25 expert participants

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• cultural cross national
• sex gender
• traffic safety culture
• demographic disparities
• pre crash contributing factors
• novice drivers

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence, crash risk outcomes
• Theoretical Contribution: theory or model