Risky Driving and the Perception of Motorcycle Accident Causes Among Chinese Motorcyclists in Hong Kong

Abstract

Objective: The primary purposes of this study were to explore the relationship between risk-taking acts while driving motorcycles and perceived causes of motorcycle accidents, as well as their contribution to active involvement in traffic accidents among Chinese motorcyclists in Hong Kong. Active involvement means the riders was likely at fault for the crash.

Methods: A total of 774 motorcyclists were recruited, of whom 292 had been involved in active motorcycle accident in the previous 3 years. All were asked to fill in a questionnaire, which was developed to assess their risk-taking acts while driving a motorcycle and perception of motorcycle accident causes.

Results: The results of the study revealed 3 dimensions of accident causes, namely, driving-related, environment-related, and belief-related causes. These motorcycle accident causes were correlated with risk-taking acts while driving a motorcycle. A multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that risk-taking acts while driving motorcycles (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 1.036, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.020–1.052), perception of driving-related cause (adjusted OR: 0.941, 95% CI: 0.916–0.967), and belief-related cause (adjusted OR: 1.134, 95% CI: 1.088–1.182) were significant factors contributing to involvement in active traffic accidents by motorcycle riders after controlling for concurrent demographic variables.

Conclusions: The study highlights that perceived causes of motorcycle accidents are multidimensional, including those areas related to driving, the environment, and beliefs. It substantiates previous studies that a higher degree of driving-related risk perception is related to a lower degree of risk-taking acts while driving. Further research is needed to understand why belief-related causes, sometimes called superstitions, lead riders to believe that it is beyond their ability to affect accident causation and prevention.

Keywords:

• Hong Kong Chinese motorcyclist
• Perceived motorcycle accident causes
• Risk-taking acts while driving
• Active motorcycle traffic accident

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors are grateful to all experts, in particular, Clement Chung and Eddie Cho of The Hong Kong School of Motoring, for providing their valuable comments on developing items on different causes of motorcycle accident and validating the items on risk-taking acts. The authors also thank all respondents participating in this study.