The Predictive Influence of Demographic and Personality Traits on Risky Driving Behaviour among Traffic Offenders in Osun State, Nigeria

Aim: Accidents are a common phenomenon on Nigerian roads and are attributed to individual, environmental and contextual factors such as excessive speeding, disobeying traffic laws, aggressive driving among others. This study investigated the predictive influence of demographic and personality traits on risky driving behaviour among traffic offenders in Osun state, Nigeria.

Study Design: Cross-sectional survey design.

Place of Study: Federal Road Safety Commission office and Redeemer’s University Osun State, South western Nigeria.

Methodology: Two hundred and eighty three (283) traffic offenders were selected through systematic sampling technique from the population of traffic offenders docked by Traffic offenders Tribunal and formally screened using Driving Behaviour Survey (DBS) and Big-five Personality Inventory (BFI). Descriptive and inferential statistics was used for data analysis.

Results: Personality traits jointly predicted risky driving behaviour. Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience significantly independently predicted driving. Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness to experiences jointly predicted anxiety based performance, exaggerated safety caution behaviour, and hostile aggressive behaviour. Demographics variable were observed to be weak predictors of risky driving behaviour among the traffic offenders.

Conclusion: There was high incidence of risky driving behavior among traffic offenders; extraversion, agreeableness conscientiousness and openness to experience were factors predicting risky driving behavior. The study recommends psychological assessment for traffic offenders and applicants of driver’s license.