The Relationship between Driver Vision and Accident Involvement 1

Abstract

A battery of eight different driver-related vision tests was administered to a sample of 890 licensed drivers. The battery included tests for static acuity under both normal illumination, low-level illumination and glare conditions; dynamic visual acuity; movement detection sensitivity, both in the central and peripheral fields; visual field in the horizontal axis; and visual search effectiveness. Regression analyses performed to determine the relationship between accident rate and performance on the tests in the vision test battery, yielded significant multiple correlations ranging from R = .09 to R = .30, depending upon the driver age-group and specific measure used for accident rate (daytime accident rate vs. nighttime accident rate). Different vision tests were found to be differentially predictive of accident rate for different age groups. In general, static acuity under low levels of illumination and dynamic visual acuity were most consistently related to accident rate. The potential use of such a battery as a flexible screening device is discussed.