Abstract

The author of the article points out the lack of importance given to the driver personality in Russia in development of the measures to ensure traffic safety. The significance of the role of the personal and social factors for accident-free driving is justified by the experience of Western countries in general and by studies in the field of traffic psychology in particular. The accident abilities of the driver are viewed as having special importance. In the article, the grounds for designing and carrying out experiments on the measurement of such accident abilities component as a sense of danger are given. The experiment was constructed by analogy of T. N. Zhurina, N. V. Zhurin, and S. A. Eliseev experiment, but it was adapted to the conditions and requirements of the driver’s activities. The experiment simulates the process of driving, including the activity of driver and communication. Scooter is used instead of the vehicle. Subjects were given instructions to drive a scooter with a maximum speed through the gate. The distance between the posts changes at the different stages of the experiment. The role of the posts was played by subjects of the experiment too. The trial experiment was conducted on a group of children 10-11 years old. The video was used to fix the process of movement and behavioral reactions of the subjects. The first approximate criteria for assessing driver accident abilities were obtained in the process of observation and analysis of the video. These criteria are the minimum distance between the posts, specificity in application of braking, and the emotions experienced by the subjects acting accordingly to the instructions. It is assumed that subjects driving without braking through the posts located at a minimum distance have a poorly developed sense of danger. They caused stress, tension, and fear in subjects standing as posts, but consider their own actions as safe.