The National Safety Council's defensive driving course as an accident and violation countermeasure

Abstract

Texas is the only state with a mandatory 10% automobile insurance discount for individuals who have completed the National Safety Council's Defensive Driving Course. Prompted by this consideration, the current study was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of the Defensive Driving Course as an accident and violation counter-measure. A sample of 3,430 subjects was drawn from the population of Defensive Driving Course graduates. A group of 1,740 individuals who had taken the DDC in 1973 served as the study group, while the comparison group consisted of 1690 subjects who had completed the DDC in 1975. The time frame for the study was from January 1972 to March 1975. The major findings of the study indicated that the DDC had a statistically significant (.05 level) effect on the reduction of the violation rates of its graduates. The within-group accident rates of the study group showed no significant pre to postcourse reduction. However, an intergroup comparison of the study and comparison groups for the 2 year postcourse time span gave an indication of a reduction in the accident rate for the study group, but this reduction was not significant at the 0.5 level.