Research article
Risky Driving Among Regular Armed Forces Personnel from the United Kingdom

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2008.05.027Get rights and content

Background

Road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for service personnel from the United Kingdom (UK). Little is known about the pattern of risky driving by these service personnel.

Methods

Cross-sectional data (collected postdeployment, between June 2004 and March 2006) were analyzed from a large, randomly selected cohort of military personnel from the UK. These analyses were limited to regular-service personnel who were drivers (n=8127; 7443 men and 684 women). “Risky driving” (not wearing a seatbelt, speeding, or both) was examined. Analyses were then repeated but restricted to those with experience of deployment to Iraq (n=4611). All analyses were undertaken during 2007.

Results

Nineteen percent of armed forces personnel from the UK were defined as risky drivers. Risky driving was associated with being of young age; being male; being in the Army; childhood adversity; being deployed to Iraq; having a combat role; and being separated, divorced, or widowed. Restricting analyses to those deployed to Iraq revealed that risky driving was associated with increasing exposure to traumatic events and low in-theater morale.

Conclusions

There are clear sociodemographic associations of risk-taking behaviors in the military population, and the study's results imply that risky driving is more common in drivers who had deployed.

Introduction

The single-largest cause of death in serving military personnel from the United Kingdom (UK) is land transport accidents (unrelated to hostile action), which account for 32% of deaths.1 This mirrors findings in the general population in the U.S. and the UK, where road traffic accidents are among the leading causes of death in younger age groups.2, 3 In U.S. military and general population studies, young unmarried men with lower educational attainment are at the greatest risk for road traffic accidents.4, 5, 6, 7

Among military personnel from the U.S. and the UK, the risk of a road traffic accident is raised further in those who have had operational experience.8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Following the 1991 Gulf War, deaths due to external causes, such as road traffic accidents, were higher on return from deployment than among a group of nondeployed military personnel,11, 12, 13, 14 although the excess risk declined over time.15, 16, 17

One hypothesis that may explain this excess is that excombatants may be more prepared to indulge in risk-taking behaviors such as speeding or driving without a seatbelt.4 Kang et al.18 found that U.S. Gulf War veterans who died from road traffic accidents were less likely to wear seatbelts or motorcycle helmets or to perform crash-avoidance behaviors than non-Gulf veterans who died from road traffic accidents; these U.S. Gulf War veterans were also were more likely to speed, have consumed alcohol, have single-vehicle crashes, collide with fixed objects, experience rollovers, be ejected, have previous convictions for driving under the influence, and die at the scene of the accident.

Little is known about risky driving among military personnel from the UK and whether it is influenced by the experience of deployment. Using data from a large, randomly selected cohort of military personnel from the UK,19 the current study examined risky driving, testing the hypothesis that deployment is associated with an increase in risky driving and examining whether there are any deployment-related factors that place service personnel from the UK at increased risk.

Section snippets

Study Sample

Full details of the study and responders can be found in Hotopf et al.19 In brief, that study was the first phase of a cohort study of military personnel from the UK in service at the time of the 2003 Iraq War (Operation TELIC, the military code name for the current operation in Iraq) in March 2003. A total of 4722 regular and reserve personnel who were deployed on TELIC 1 (the war-fighting phase) and 5550 regular and reserve personnel who were not deployed on TELIC 1 (referred to as “ERA”)

The Demographics of Risky Driving

Nineteen percent of armed forces personnel from the UK were defined as risky drivers (n=1504). Men were significantly more likely than women to be risky drivers (men: 19.5%, n=1437; women: 9.9%, n=67; χ2 statistic=37.51, based on 1 df, p<0.0001). An examination of the behaviors combined to generate this variable showed that 14% of armed forces personnel from the UK drove more than 20 mph above the speed limit on a motorway (n=1093); 6% sometimes, seldom, or never wore a seatbelt (n=498); and 5%

Principal Findings

This study, which examined risky driving among 8127 regular armed forces personnel from the UK, showed that 19% of the personnel were defined as risky drivers. Risky driving was associated with being young; in the Army; male; deployed on TELIC 1 (the first phase of the 2003 Iraq War); in a combat role; separated, divorced, or widowed; and having experienced childhood adversity. The strongest associations were observed for being young; in the Army; and having experienced childhood adversity.

Implications

The implications of this work are threefold. First, risk is not distributed evenly. There are clear demographic associations of risk-taking behavior that would allow potential interventions to be preferentially targeted. Second, there needs to be awareness of the increase in risky driving among personnel who have been deployed. Finally, risk-taking behaviors co-vary, and therefore the public health impact of these findings may extend further than the measures of risk taking reported here.

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