BTSCRP Research Report 16: Predicting High-Risk Drivers: Skills Examination and Scoring Guidelines provides guidance and methods for driving skills examination and scoring that identify high safety risk drivers. The report is based on a comprehensive review of domestic and international, specifically European, driver examination policies and input from an expert panel that provided insights into best practices for driver testing and skill assessment. An experimental trial was conducted with 1,512 teenage learner drivers in which all participants completed baseline surveys, a pre-intervention hazard perception assessment, an immediate post-intervention hazard perception assessment, and a 3-month post-intervention hazard perception assessment. Participants used a smartphone app to measure driving behavior, including distraction, speeding, and hard braking. This report will be of interest to state highway safety offices and other stakeholders concerned with young driver safety.

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers in the United States. Despite significant risks associated with young drivers, current driver’s licensing exams are not strong predictors of driving safety. The on-road driving skills examination represents a “gateway” from the learner phase to licensure and independent, unsupervised driving. All drivers must pass a skills examination before obtaining a driver’s license. Ideally, the skills examination should be designed to reliably and consistently identify drivers who pose a high safety risk and need more driving experience before being licensed.

Both NHTSA and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators have called for evaluations of driving skills testing and scoring to help identify pre-licensure drivers who present a higher potential safety risk and to develop a risk profile that the novice driver and others (e.g., parents, driver instructors) can use to guide practice in both the pre- and post-licensure stages.

Under BTSCRP Project BTS-16, “Developing Driver Skills Examination and Scoring Guidance for Evaluating and Predicting High Safety Risk Drivers,” Johns Hopkins University was tasked with developing guidance and methods for driving skills examination and scoring that identify high safety risk drivers and are applicable in all U.S. jurisdictions.

In addition to BTSCRP Research Report 16, the following deliverables can be found on the National Academies Press website (nap.nationalacademies.org) by searching for BTSCRP Research Report 16: Predicting High-Risk Drivers: Skills Examination and Scoring Guidelines:

• A technical memorandum on guidance and methods for driving skills examination and scoring that identify high safety risk drivers
• A technical memorandum on recommendations for additional research
• A PowerPoint presentation of BTSCRP Project BTS-16