The UAB University Transportation Center update : Vol. 4, No. 1.

NHTSA · 2010 · ROSA P / University of Alabama at Birmingham. University Transportation Center

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Summary

This document is a newsletter update from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) University Transportation Center (UTC) for the Winter 2010-2011 period. It reports on the center’s ongoing activities, educational initiatives, and preliminary research findings rather than presenting a single, unified study. The primary focus is on distracted driving, particularly among adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as well as emergency response communication and transit advocacy. The UAB UTC participated in national and state-level efforts to combat distracted driving. Researchers Dr. Russ Fine, Dr. Despina Stavrinos, and Ms. Crystal Franklin attended the 2010 Distracted Driving Summit in Washington, DC, hosted by US DOT Secretary Ray LaHood. This followed their participation in the 2009 summit and their co-hosting of the Alabama Distracted Driving Summit in December 2009. The center also supports Alabamians Against Distracted Driving (AADD), a nonprofit organization that launched a website and distributed educational materials, including bumper stickers on 300 Jefferson County Sheriff Department vehicles. Data from the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety indicated that 1,466 crashes in Alabama over 13 months involved drivers distracted by electronic devices. Research activities were conducted primarily through the Translational Research for Injury Prevention (TRIP) Laboratory. The lab welcomed twelve new student research assistants from diverse disciplines, including psychology, sociology, and epidemiology. Preliminary findings from a pilot study on distracted driving in teens with and without ADHD were presented at the 22nd Annual CHADD Conference. Annie Artiga Garner’s research suggested that teens with ADHD exhibit a "Positive Illusory Bias," overestimating their ability to drive while distracted. Khushboo Jhala’s study found that poor effortful control is related to risky driving patterns in adolescents with ADHD. Sharon Welburn’s research indicated that 40% of teens with ADHD text while driving, a rate comparable to the national average, and that these teens perceive distracted driving as less dangerous than non-distracted peers. Additionally, Dr. Stavrinos presented final results to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia regarding whether stimulant medications improve driving performance in individuals with ADHD. Other research addressed emergency response systems. A study directed by Andrew Sullivan and Gerald McGwin surveyed emergency dispatchers and responders to identify communication gaps. Preliminary results revealed a disconnect regarding traffic congestion: over 90% of dispatchers believed responders rarely encounter congestion, whereas only 60% of responders agreed. Furthermore, while over 60% of rural dispatchers reported providing congestion information, only 28% of responders stated they received it. Both groups agreed that automatic crash notification systems could reduce response times. The newsletter also highlighted Dr. Fine’s appointment to the Metro Area Express Transit Advisory Committee and recognized Annie Artiga Garner as the 2010-2011 UTC Student of the Year for her contributions to transportation psychology.

Key finding

Preliminary research indicates that adolescents with ADHD exhibit positive illusory bias regarding their ability to drive while distracted, and a significant communication gap exists between emergency dispatchers and responders concerning traffic congestion awareness.

Methodology

other

Provenance

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

Topics

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• external distraction

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
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource
• Synthesis & Review: research agenda