Page 28 - AAA Magazine – AAA Ohio Auto Club – May 2021

Ohio – Ready Test Drive!
Diagnosing and Addressing Driving Skill Deficits Before Young Drivers Crash.
By Flaura Winston, M.D., Ph.D.
Passing Ohio’s On-Road Exam does not necessarily mean that teens are ready to safely hit the open road. While the exam tests basic vehicle operation skills and the ability to follow the rules of the road, it is
not capable of consistently and routinely challenging novice drivers in situations that commonly lead to crashes. This just isn’t safe for the examiners.
As a result, two new drivers, both having just received their license to drive, may be at very different risks of crashing, and we currently
have no objective way to differentiate the two. This is about to change in Ohio. Ohio – Ready Test Drive!, a new program in Ohio launched by Governor DeWine’s Public Safety team and the Ohio Traffic Safety Office, aims to ensure the first licensed drive for every new driver is a safe one.
At the core of ORTD is a new, validated Virtual Driving Assessment System to help driving schools objectively identify students at risk of crashing after getting licensed and to provide personalized feedback about the skills needing more practice.
For more than a decade, traffic safety researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention researched why young drivers crash and how
Given that about 94% of young driver crashes are due to driver error, improving crash avoidance skills has the potential to reduce serious crash risk.
virtual environments could safely evaluate the safety-critical skills needed to avoid these crashes. The Ohio Department of Public Safety partnered with the CHOP team and the technology company Diagnostic Driving Inc. to develop and validate
the VDAS which is now available to driving schools across Ohio.
Given that about 94% of young driver crashes
are due to driver error, improving crash avoidance skills has the potential to reduce serious crash risk. Assessing these skills before teens start driving independently is key. That’s why the ORTD program sees driving schools as key partners: They can
use the VDAS evaluation to identify potential safe driving skill deficits and focus on them during behind-the-wheel training and before students complete the On-Road Exam.
The VDAS is not a training simulator but rather a diagnostic tool. The self-directed VDAS takes about 15 minutes to complete and safely exposes the driver to highly common crash situations. During the drive, the VDAS automatically records critical driving skills that require more practice. After completing the VDAS, feedback is automatically provided to the student driver and their instructor.
Our research using the VDAS-linked data shows that Ohio drivers who fail the On-Road Exam commonly
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Photo: © The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia