Behavioural Predictors of Driver Crash Risks in Ghana

Abstract There is a growing body of literature on driver crash risks in the developed world, but little is known about how well these models apply to motoring in the Global South where the burden of road crashes is greatest. Three studies were conducted to address the behavioural predictors of driver crash risks in Ghana. In Study 1 (Chapter 2), a qualitative approach was taken to explore factors influencing crash risks for commercial passenger drivers in Ghana. Some crash risks that are shared with drivers in the developed world such as fatigued driving and speeding were identified in Ghana too, but their presentation was moderated by the Ghanaian context. Other identified factors such as aggressive competition over passengers and corruption are rarely considered in research addressing driving behaviour in developed countries. Study 2 (Chapter 3) modelled road crash risk for Ghana using the Manchester Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses produced a 24 item 2-factor (violations and errors) model of the DBQ. As evidence of the external validity, both violations and errors were independently correlated with crash involvement and sensation seeking. While the Ghanaian DBQ shows a different factor structure from other research conducted in the developed world, the findings support the usefulness of the measure in characterizing the behaviours underlying crash risk in Ghana. Study 3 (Chapter 4) quantitatively modelled the processes underlying risky driving behaviours for Ghanaian motorists and compared them to a sample of UK drivers. Analysis was guided by a modified version of the Contextual Mediated Model (Sumer, 2003) which proposed a set of distal effects (e.g., personality) on crash involvement that are partially mediated via proximal driving behaviours. Structural Equation Modelling showed that distal factors predicted crash involvement both directly and indirectly through proximal behavioural risks (violations, errors and hazard monitoring) in both Ghana and the UK. The findings from the three studies have implications for road crash prevention policy and intervention design in the Global South.