Latest research news
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Ireland's Road Safety Authority have agreed to fund a three-year research project, entitled "Learning about Driving Dangers: from hazard detection to hazard handling."
Principal Investigator: Professor John A Groeger
Project description: Drivers may learn useful information about the dangers of driving before they can actually drive, but can only learn to handle those dangers by accumulating driving experience. The benefits of (a) pre-driving traffic education and (b) early consolidation of control skills conferred when drivers confront hazardous situations, are the central issues addressed in the proposed doctoral research. Whether or not the learning which leads to satisfactory performance in a theory test confers any advantage in safety terms is debatable, and actual evidence is scant (see Groeger & Banks, Ergonomics, 2007). Even if theoretical knowledge of risks and hazards improves the ability to detect hazards, selecting the correct course of action and implementing this appropriately is more likely to result from actual practical driving experience (see Groeger, Understanding Driving, 2000). No research data are available on whether, without actually confronting hazards, these action selection and implementation skills can be trained safely, although much professional driving instruction is premised on the supposition that such "transfer of training" does indeed enable drivers to "handle hazards" later in their career.
This three-year project will investigate both issues using UCC's state of the art driving simulator, and will provide fulltime funding for a doctoral research studentship. This vacancy will be advertised shortly, if interested, contact j.groeger@ucc.ie.
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Research association with BureauVeritas in Norway
(Dr. Jurek Kirakowski)
The HFRG started a long-term project with Bureau Veritas (Norway) to validate the ease of use of their global ship fault reporting systems. Project started 16th February 2009 and will continue for most of 2009.
Last updated: 23/09/2009
