Sonnolenza e incidentalità stradale notturna:uno studio sulle percezioni di rischio in giovani guidatori/ Sleepiness and nocturnal driving safety: a study on risk perception in young drivers

The present study is aimed to evaluate: 1) the factors that affect the risk perception of young people in nocturnal driving; 2) how the way of presenting information about the sleepiness-accident relationship influences attributions, goals and decisions about driver sleepiness. 572 young drivers answered to a questionnaires, composed according to the paradigms of study framing, on three decisional problems about sleepiness and nocturnal vehicle accidents. 285 answered to questionnaires with problems presented in a positive frame of and 287 in a negative frame. All subjects were requested to answer to questions on drive risk perception and nocturnal sleepiness, on nocturnal driving experience and on the adopted strategies to counterattack sleepiness. Results show that experiences of sleep attacks during driving and nocturnal driving frequency are factors that affect both the risk perception and the commitment in adopting preventive strategies. Furthermore, the manipulation on two out of the three problems (attributions and risk decisions frames) clearly affected the choices of responders. Present results can give useful suggestions about how to present information in educational programs aimed to the prevention of vehicle accidents among young people