The Human Factor in Blue Light Driving
- Lisa Dorn
- Mar 2
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 22
The Risks of Blue Light Driving
At work crashes are the single largest cause of employment-related deaths in the UK. The emergency services are expected to respond to calls as quickly as possible and this occupational necessity can expose personnel to harm. An analysis of over 2000 work related injury collisions involved drivers of six main types of vehicles including company cars; vans/pickups; HGV/LGVs; buses; taxis; and emergency vehicles. The researchers used collision investigation evidence to categorise the number of at-work drivers at fault relative to the number of blameworthy collisions caused by another road user. Whilst truck drivers had a blameworthiness ratio of almost 2.5 times that of other road users, emergency vehicles had a blameworthy ratio of 0.9. This means that emergency service drivers were generally passive victims of other road user’s mistakes and violations rather than being the perpetrator (Clarke et al, 2009). However, the same study also reported that emergency vehicles were over-represented in collisions due to speed and time-pressure compared with other at-work drivers. Human error is more likely to occur given that task demands are particularly high on blue light runs, often due to stress, distraction and poor decision making. Other human factors that may emerge when driving on pursuits is reduced self control with red mist, bravado and hunting instincts reported as a potential risk (Christie et al, 2020).
Current Driver Training for the Emergency Services
One of the ways of managing the risks of driving emergency vehicles is to deliver training to develop the competencies for dealing with high speed blue light driving safely following Roadcraft principles. However, the duration and content of the police driver training curriculum is 3 weeks in duration with a 1 day refresher course every 5 years. Fire appliance drivers complete about 2 weeks practical emergency fire appliance driving (EFAD) and refresher training every 3-5 years. Ambulance drivers take part in 5-day C1 training plus 4 weeks of practical training and theory. Most trusts have further driving assessments every 5 years. Whilst the human factors associated with blue light driving is covered in Roadcraft and classroom-based sessions aim to increase awareness, the complex nature of human aspects of blue light driving requires a more targeted intervention.
Our Research
A series of Cranfield University studies, funded by the Home Office, aimed to develop a new system for training drivers of emergency service vehicles. First, our research established that evaluations of accounts of road traffic incidents and near misses were linked to emotions and risky decision making. Officers held a sense of invulnerability in high-risk scenarios and were optimistic that their highly developed driving skills meant they could manage the risks when driving on blue lights. Risk-taking behaviours were factored out as ‘calculated risks’ and necessary in the pursuit of a noble cause (Dorn and Brown, 2003).
Some individuals are more vulnerable to adverse driver stress and fatigue reactions behind the wheel (Matthews, 2001; Matthews et al, 1998; Desmond and Matthews, 2009: Öz et al, 2010; Bergomi et al, 2017; Rowden et al, 2011; Wishart et al, 2017) and our studies also highlighted the importance of individual differences in response to blue light driving too. We reported that officers with more adaptive driver coping styles were less likely to be involved in road traffic collisions (Gandolfi and Dorn, 2005) and that risky driving in a simulator was associated with thrill seeking tendencies amongst police officers (Dorn, 2005). Some individuals may consider that the dangerous aspect of blue light driving is rewarding and enjoy the excitement, whilst others find it stressful and difficult. Personnel are often confronted by circumstances that provoke anger, such as other road users getting in their way, and these kinds of emotional responses can divert attention away from the driving task.
A New System
We designed a psychometric assessment to measure personality-based emotional responses to driving emergency vehicles and administered the questionnaire to 333 police drivers across 26 forces (Gandolfi and Dorn, 2005). Responses were subjected to statistical procedures to create scales that reliably described police driver behaviour (Gandolfi, 2007). Then, 200 randomly selected police drivers completed the assessment, and their scores were compared with over 200 officers selected based on their blameworthy involvement in a number of crashes over the previous three years. The frustration and thrill seeking scales were found to predict those drivers with a poor driving record and poor coping strategies were also linked to police-related collisions (Gandolfi, 2007). Similar work was undertaken with the fire service and several ambulance trusts.
The final stage of the work involved finding a way of incorporating the instrument into the training curriculum for the emergency services. We trained hundreds of driving instructors across the services on how to use the profile in driver coaching. The training aimed to upskill driver trainers in behavioural change and reflective thinking as an essential part of driver development. We are proud that many ambulance, fire and police services have adopted this new system of training drivers and that thousands have benefiting from developing safer coping strategies for managing the risks of driving on blues and twos.
Develop your knowledge and skills in Human Factors
Personnel working with the emergency services with responsibilities for managing risk have attended the Human Factors and Road Risk Management programme. The programme has been accredited by the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors as developing the competencies required of a human factors specialist and is delivered online for 2 days by Dr Lisa Dorn. The course encourages active, value-driven discussions and tailored to the specific interests of the emergency services in attendance.
Level 1 dates
18th and 19th March
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Level 2 dates
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References
Bergomi, M., et al. (2017). Work-related Stress and Role of Personality in a Sample of Italian Bus Drivers. 433-440.
Christie, N. (2020). Managing the safety of police pursuits: A mixed method case study of the Metropolitan Police Service, London. Safety science, 129, 104848.
Clarke, D. D., Ward, P., Bartle, C., & Truman, W. (2009). Work-related road traffic collisions in the UK. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 41(2), 345-351.
Desmond, P. A., & Matthews, G. (2009). Individual differences in stress and fatigue in two field studies of driving. Transportation Research Part F, 12 (4), 265-276.
Dorn, L. (2005). Professional driver training and driver stress: Effects on simulated driving performance. In G Underwood. (Ed). Traffic and Transport Psychology, Elsevier.
Dorn, L. and Brown, B. (2003) Making Sense of Invulnerability at Work – A qualitative study of police drivers, Safety Science, 41, 10, 837-859.
Gandolfi, J. and Dorn, L. (2003). A qualitative analysis of advanced and standard police driver differences, in Dorn, L (Ed) Driver Behaviour and Training. Ashgate: Aldershot.
Gandolfi, J. (2007). Development of a psychometric measure of police driver behaviour. Unpublished PhD thesis, Cranfield University.
Gandolfi, J., & Dorn, L. (2005). Development of the Police Driver Risk Index. In L. Dorn (Ed.) Driver Behaviour and Training, Volume II, pp. 337-347. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Matthews, G. (2001). A transactional model of driver stress, In PA Hancock and PA Desmond (Eds) Stress, workload and fatigue, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: NJ.
Matthews, G., Dorn, L., Hoyes, T. W., Davies, D. R., Glendon, A. I., & Taylor, R. G. (1998). Driver stress and performance on a driving simulator. Human Factors, 40, 136-149.
Öz, B., Özkan, T., & Lajunen, T. (2010). Professional and non-professional drivers’ stress reactions and risky driving. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 13(1), 32-40.
Rowden, P., Matthews, G., & Watson, B. et al. (2011). The relative impact of work-related stress, life stress and driving environment stress on driving outcomes. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 43 (4), 1332-1340.
Wishart, D., Somoray, K., & Rowland, B. (2017). Role of thrill and adventure seeking in risky work-related driving behaviours. Personality and Individual Differences, 104, 362-367.
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