Mind wandering and driving: a responsibility case-control study

Cédric Galera (1) , Ludivine Orriols (2) , Katia M'Bailara (3) , Magali Laborey (1) , Benjamin Contrand (1) , Régis Ribereau-Gayon (1) , Françoise Masson (1) , Sarah Bakiri (1) , Catherine Gabaude (4) , Alexandra Fort (4) , Bertrand Maury (5) , Céline Lemercier (6) , Maurice Cours (7) , Manuel-Pierre Bouvard (8) , Emmanuelle Lagarde (1)

1 Epidémiologie et Biostatistique [Bordeaux]
2 AIDMP - Aide à la Décision pour une Médecine Personnalisé - Laboratoire de Biostatistique, Epidémiologie et Recherche Clinique - EA 2415
3 Laboratoire de psychologie:Santé et qualité de vie
4 IFSTTAR/LESCOT - Laboratoire d'Ergonomie et de Sciences Cognitives pour les Transports
5 LMO - Laboratoire de Mathématiques d'Orsay
6 CLLE-ERSS - Cognition, Langues, Langage, Ergonomie
7 Continental Automotive France [Toulouse]
8 Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Objective To assess the association between mind wandering (i.e. thinking unrelated to the task at hand) and the risk of being responsible for the crash. Design Responsibility case-control study. Setting Adult emergency department of the Bordeaux University hospital (France) from April 2010 to August 2011. Participants 955 injured drivers presenting as a result of motor vehicle crash. Main outcome measures The main outcome variable was responsibility for the crash. Exposures were mind wandering, external distraction, negative affect, alcohol use, psychotropic medicine use, and sleep deprivation. Potential confounders were sociodemographic and crash characteristics. Results Beyond classical risk factors found to be associated with responsibility, the results showed that intense mind wandering was associated with being responsible for a crash (17% [responsible] vs. 9% [not responsible]; adjusted OR [95% CI]=2.12 [1.37-3.28]). Conclusions Mind wandering while driving, by decoupling attention from visual and auditory perceptions, may jeopardize the ability of the driver to incorporate information from the environment, thereby threatening safety on the roads. Our findings provide support for the latest research designed to develop systems to detect periods of driving vulnerability related to inattention. In addition, further research is recommended to assess how these results could lead to innovative interventions such as attentional training for drivers at risk of inattention.

Mots clés: RESPONSABILITE; FACTEUR HUMAIN; DISTRACTION; ATTENTION

Domaines: Psychologie

Cédric Galera, Ludivine Orriols, Katia M'Bailara, Magali Laborey, Benjamin Contrand, et al.. Mind wandering and driving: a responsibility case-control study. BMJ, 2012, 345, 7 p. ⟨10.1136/bmj.e8105⟩. ⟨hal-00982577⟩