ARTÍCULO
TITULO

Driver Personality as a Valid Predictor of Risky Driving

Matú? ?ucha    
Dana Cernochová    

Resumen

A multifaceted activity, driving requires experience and a number of skills and personality and motivational prerequisites. Research has shown that such skills are not enough to ensure safe driving in the long term. In addition to the driver's performance characteristics, modern research into traffic psychology points out the role of personality traits and motivational factors: not only do the driver's capacities (skills) need to be assessed, but also motivational and personality factors (what they want to do). The present paper reports the results of a study of a group of 2,471 Czech drivers who underwent psychological assessment of their fitness to drive in the period 2013-2014. The reason for this procedure was their driving licence being suspended because of their reaching 12 points in the demerit point system or a single serious traffic violation (such as DUI or speeding). Another group comprised professional drivers with no previous problems in the performance of their work. Personality traits (personality tests ? e.g. NEO-PI-R, PSSI) and skills (performance tests ? e.g. VMT, D2, IST-2000-R) were assessed. The results indicate differences in personality traits between the groups of risk drivers (licences suspended) and good drivers (professional drivers). As for the performance characteristics, the differences between the two groups were not significant.