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This article originally appeared in Volume 4, Number 4 of Driver/Education, in December 1994.

A skid training program offered to high school students in the Portland, Oregon area who had completed a driver training course the year before, showed some interesting differences between trained and untrained drivers and between subsequent male and female accident and violation rates.

The training program was the subject of a study carried out under the direction of Dr. Barnie Jones, Office of the Manager, Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle Services.

The training was carried out at a Portland area commercial driving school. It consisted of a short classroom session followed by behind-the-wheel training on a large, flat, asphalt parking lot with a serpentine course marked off with pylons.

The practical training was carried out in a car equipped with a special hydraulically-operated outrigger system that lifts the weight of the vehicle off the wheels, thereby simulating reduced traction conditions. The outrigger system is mounted on castoring wheels that allow the car to drift in any direction if traction is sufficiently reduced. The weight can be lifted off any of the four wheels independently, so that oversteer can be simulated as well as very low friction conditions such as snow or ice.

Three phases

There were three phases to the practical training:

• The first phase consisted of instruction in driver position, hand position and eye placement, first-hand experience of loss of traction under various conditions, and the application of various techniques for maintaining traction and control.
• The second phase consisted of timed trials over the serpentine course.
• In the third phase, students were asked to drive over the course without brakes.

Throughout the course, the instructor emphasized skills for anticipating hazards and avoiding loss of traction.

About 1000 students participated in the study. One group of 300 students actually completed the training. A second group of 322 students consisted of those who had asked to be on the course but did not complete the training. A third group of 396 students did not volunteer.

In a summary of the results of this and other studies of the effectiveness of skid training, Jones concluded that "available research on skid training is highly equivocal." Studies in Norway, Sweden, and the U.S. generally show increases in accident rates among course graduates, rather than decreases. However, some interesting differences revealed by Jones's findings may point up important areas of development for advanced training providers to explore.

The results

• Males and females appear to respond differently to advanced skills training. For example, trained males had slightly more violations than untrained, and trained females slightly less than untrained females.
• Students who completed the training were slightly more likely to have an accident rather than less.
• The trained group had significantly less accidents in reduced-traction conditions than the untrained group. This training effect was clear for both sexes, although females tended to have relatively more slick-surface accidents.
• Interestingly, there was virtually no difference between trained and untrained groups in culpability for accidents.
• Drivers with skid car training were involved in a lower proportion of rear-end collisions.

Jones suggests that several competing explanations for the results should be explored. First, those with skid car training may drive more and, independent of the quality of their driving, have more accidents. Second, trained drivers may be more confident of their ability on slick roads and drive more in these situations.

Third, skid training may promote overconfidence which is manifested in more risky driving in all kinds of driving situations. "On the surface," Jones says, "the findings seem contradictory. A higher overall accident rate suggests that skid car training is detrimental, but the relative absence of slick surface accidents and rear-end collisions indicates that skid car training is having the desired effect, to the extent that these are the types of accidents that the training should be expected to prevent."

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Comments

hi top, on Tuesday, 15. May 2007 at 12:33 PM

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