authored by Samar A Amer*
Abstract
Background: Recently, the use of cell phone has increased among people nevertheless use it while driving lead to driver distraction which increases the risk of accidents and it is considered as a main cause of deaths in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
The aim: To measure the level of knowledge, the practice and the risk of using cell phone while driving and its’ related hazards in KSA, in order to decrease the prevalence of its use while driving.
Method: A cross-sectional study targeting 1320 randomly selected Saudi drivers, stratified to present the main 5 different regions (404 center, 386 west, 212 east, 232 souths, and 86 north), during October 2017-Jan year 2018. The data collected through online well-structured questionnaire and analyzed using the suitable tests.
Results: 1003(75.9%) of participants using cellphone recurrent while driving, 1076(81.5%) for calling, because 44.3% addicted to its use,85.1% by hands,90% when alone. 59.1% of drivers don’t use the Cellphone Holder or Bluetooth due to unavailability.82.8% had an accident, and 86% exposed to danger .97.9% had good knowledge only 12.1% had good practice, there was a significant association between using cell phone while driving and risk of accidents (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The central region had a highest prevalence of using cell phone while driving, most of the drivers have a good knowledge but they still using cell phone while driving in a bad practice.
Keywords: Cell phone use; Driving; Accident, KSA
Introduction
Road Injuries are the main cause of deaths in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) [1]. However, driving cars is the most important transportation in developed countries, but most of the drivers are not fully aware of the driving rules that probability of occurrence hazards [2]. In recent years the importance of mobile phones has increased among people and they can use it in both positive and negative way [3], such as in Jeddah they estimated the number of using the cell phone while driving by 98.2% of them [4].
Moreover, the prevalence of using cell phone while driving was different between countries such as United States (US) 69% [5] and United Arab Emirates (UAE) 80% [6] are showed higher prevalence than the United Kingdom (UK) 21% [5] and Australia 39% [7]. In fact, using cell phone while driving lead to driver distraction which defined as ‘’the diversion of attention from activities critical for safe driving towards a competing activity, it is a behavior that jeopardizes the safety of drivers, passengers, and non-occupants alike’’ [8]. The distraction of using cell phone while driving can distract drivers’ eyes (visually) and minds to be attention to the road (cognitively) and their hands on the steering wheel (physically) [9]. Distraction crashes killed 3,092 people, 408 (13%) of them at least one driver was using cell phone when the crashes occurred [8] As well as 78% of the accidents in KSA related to using cell phone while driving [10]. A study showed, the risk of accident dramatically increasing with using cell phone while driving, (72%) of drivers believe that very likely to have a crash caused by texting/browsing cell phone, while (41%) very unlikely of a voice call (handheld) [7]. Moreover, Study show that uses cell phone while driving is similar dangerous with driving in the drunk situation at the legal limit [11].
Most governments develop their laws of using cell phone while driving, for instance in KSA, Ministry of Interior apply fines not less than 150 Saudi Riyal(S.R.) and not more than 300S.R. for using cell phone while driving [12] and in the UK the penalty of using handheld phone is 200£ while driving car and 2,500£ while driving lorry or bus [13]. As a global rank road traffic accident become the 11th leading cause of death [14]. Moreover, road traffic accident gave a higher rate of mortality in all Gulf countries [15,16]. While in KSA road injuries are the main cause leading to death [1]. Lately using cell phone while driving has become more common among drivers and it caused to injuries, disability, and accident.
Using cell phone while driving
Due to technological changes, the importance of cell phones services become more and more significant throughout the world. The reasons of that are what these devices have to software and features such as (social media, GPS, games, radio, internet and downloading, et al) that makes the daily life easier [17].
According to Sanbonmatsu D, Strayer D, et al. (2015) [18], the study conducted in Salt Lake City, Utah with 77 undergraduate participants to examine the impact of multitasking on performance monitoring and assessment showed there is a significant association between using cell phone while driving and the more serious errors of driving (p = .008). Also, people who use cell phone while driving is less aware than people who did not use it. These results indicate weak awareness among drivers about traffic safety [18].
A cross-sectional survey of 695 respondents was aimed to determine the prevalence of seat belt use and distracted driving behaviors among health-care providers in Saudi Arabia and its comparison with non-health-care providers in 2017. According to Jawadi H., et al Study showed most of the drivers using cell phone while driving but the highest rate was among who answer the cell phone while driving (98.5%).
Also, most of the drivers texting a message while driving (74.3%) but the accident that caused by text a messaging was only (28.7%) [19]. Open-ended interviews study with 228 sample conducted in U.S by Bergmark R, Gliklich E, Guo R, Gliklich R. [20] to describes the development and preliminary evaluation of the Distracted Driving Survey (DDS) and score in 2016. As we mentioned before, most of the drivers prefer to use cell phone to text a message while driving and study showed only 12.7% read the message while driving with any speed, 15.6% lowering them speed and 10.1% when stopped [2].
Recently, cell phone has become a necessity of life and has spread among the world as much as there are advantages and disadvantages to using cell phone according to Billieux J, Maurage P, Lopez Fernandez O, Kuss D, Griffiths M [21] study conducted in 2015 show Enhancement of health education in terms of physical fitness, healthy food, and improved behavior was from advantage of using cell phone but using phone while driving, addiction to using cell phone and health damages were disadvantages of using phone [22]. In 2015 a qualitative study was done in Pennsylvania by McDonald C, and Sommers M, to describe teen drivers’ perceptions of cell phone use while driving in order to inform future interventions to reduce risky driving among 30 drivers, Study showed most adolescents know the risk and distracting of using mobile phone while driving but there still using for text message, calling and social applications while driving [23].
Prevalence of using cellphone while driving among drivers
The prevalence of using a cellphone while driving is different between countries [5]. However, most countries around the world their prevalence is above 50% while there are countries with lower prevalence but not one of the Gulf countries [4,6,20,24]. A crosssectional study conducted by Jawadi, A. et al. in 2017 [19]. The title of the study was (Seat belt usage and distracted driving behaviors in Saudi Arabia: Health-care providers versus Nonhealth-care providers). The sample size of the study was 695 Saudi respondents who live in Saudi Arabia, aged 18 years and above, 51.2% of them were health-care providers and the rest were Nonhealth-care providers. Data were collecting out of online questionnaire and distributed through the emails of Saudi health-care providers in Saudi Arabia and social media using a snowball. One of the results showed the prevalence of using a cell phone while driving and it was 99.1% health-care providers and 89.8% of Nonhealthcare providers (total prevalence =95.9%) [20]. In another hand Trespalacios, O. King, M. Haque, M. and Washington, s. conducted a cross-sectional study in Queensland (2017). The study aimed to investigates characteristics of usage, risk factors, compensatory strategies in use and characteristics of high-frequency offenders of mobile phone use while driving. The study conducted an anonymous online questionnaire distributed across social media, local press releases, and electronic mail through Queensland University of Technology mailing lists.
Not only-but also public face-to-face dissemination. The sample size was 484 drivers 49.8% were aged 17-25 years and 50.2% were aged 26–65 years, 65.1%of them were women. The results showed that 49% used a cell phone while driving [7]. Moreover, at 2016 a cross-sectional study was done by Ahamed H, and Hafian, M in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah with 882 sample size. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of using a cell phone while driving. The sample included men drivers aged above 17 participants. The instrument of this study developed a 34-item closed-format questionnaire. As a result, the prevalence of the study was 98.2% of drivers use their cell phones while driving [4]. At 2015 Rasool, F. et al. [24] conducted a cross-sectional study aimed to raise awareness about road traffic accidents and their causes and consequences among medical students in Arabian Gulf University (AGU) in Bahrain.
The sample size was 200 students with Bahraini or non- Bahraini, aged between 20-24 years. Data instrument was a structured questionnaire and designed to be self-filled by the participants. The prevalence of using a cell phone while driving (49%) showed in a part of the results [25].
An observational study conducted in Texas, US (2015) by Wilkinson, M. Brown, A. Moussa, A. Day, R. the study aimed to assess the 3-year prevalence of cell phone use (CPU) of drivers and characteristics associated with its use in six cities across Texas, from 2011–2013. CPU and driver characteristics of 1280 motor vehicles observed at major intersections in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, and Brownsville at respective University of Texas medical and academic campuses. The main result showed an overall prevalence of CPU, which was 18.7% [26].
Another study evaluates relevant factors related to causes of Road Traffic Accidents, RTAs among drivers in Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2014. Quantitative data method used through questionnaire survey as it is developed and piloted in the UK and UAE with 600 drivers as a sample size, aged between 18 and less to 65 years, 49% of the questionnaires returned. The prevalence of using a cell phone while driving was 80% in both male and female [6]. In addition, Al-Rees, H. et al. have done a cross-sectional study conducted in Oman, 2013. The study aimed to investigate driving behavior as indexed in the Driving Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ). A sample of 1003 participants was token from Omani university, 632 of them were students and 371 were staffs aged with a range of 17-58 years. The instrument of this study is a standard questionnaire that called DBQ questionnaire. The results showed that 92% of the drivers are using a cell phone while driving [24].
Demographic factors associated with using cell phone while driving
A study was done in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2017 by Ahamed and Hafian to investigate the effects of mobile phone usage while driving. The sample size was 882 drivers aged over 17 years, they surveyed by a 34 -item closed-format questionnaire to gather information on their mobile phone use while driving as well as their risk perception. The survey covers eight variables representing demographic characteristics of the participants; nationality of the participant, marital status, education, work status, age, driving experience, the time participant got a smart mobile phone and conversation with passengers. A part of result in this study show there was statistically significant differences in the use of mobile phone while driving according to their nationality (P=0.03). The frequency of using mobile phone while driving is higher for Saudi- driver than non- Saudi- driver. Also, there were statistically significant differences according to marital status (P=0.04) and work status (P = 0.04). However, there were no statistically significant differences in the use mobile phone while driving according to their age, education level and driving experience [4].
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