Traffic accidents are the leading cause of teenage injury and death. This Phase II proposal describes a projectto translate and disseminate a computer based instructional system developed for driver education that hasbeen shown to reduce the teenage accident rate. The computer based instructional system includes: 1) tradi-tional driver education material to form and shape the student's attitude about driving safety; 2) a desk topdriving simulation to teach critical perceptual, psychomotor and cognitive driving skills; 3) a user interface thatallows selection of lesson plans, presents quizzes on multimedia educational material and stores and displayssimulator driving performance. The driving simulation component has already been shown to improve drivingskills and reduce accidents in a project sponsored by the CDC with California novice drivers. The implementa-tion of this computer based driver education instructional system includes a software platform designed tosimplify the presentation of multimedia course materials. The software platform can launch various multime-dia materials (e.g. Power Point, video) and also launch the driving simulation with specific contextually basedscenarios that will address particular instructional issues (e.g. speed control, hazard perception, situationawareness, decision making and action). The platform will also present knowledge quizzes, and provide suffi-cient instruction for the student to achieve an acceptable score for graduation. The driving simulation scena-rios include a range of typical elements (roadway geometry, roadside elements, traffic control devices, trafficand pedestrians), and hazards that are controlled in time and space to require acceptable driver response timesfor successful completion. The objective of this Phase II SBIR project is to integrate the computer based in-structional system driving simulation in current high school and community college driver education pro-grams. This is a longitudinal study design that will compare the accident experience of simulator trained driv-ers with a closely matched control group of teenagers not receiving simulator training. The computer simula-tion has been used by an instructor in the preceding Phase I study who has had success in its application withgood acceptance by the students. Driving skills and attitudes will be assessed at the beginning and end of thecomputer based driver education instructional course.
Teen driver accident rates are significantly higher than those of mature drivers. This project proposes to integrate traditional driver education material with a desktop driving simulation intended to produce teen drivers with high-quality skills and attitudes consistent with safe driving behavior. This is a longitudinal study design that proposes to follow the accident rates of simulator trained drivers and a closely matched control group. If effective, this approach could reduce teen driver accidents, and produce a low cost computer based driver education system capable of training teen drivers with minimal supervision.
