The road safety: a special sign for unfamiliar drivers

Abstract

Each year thousands of crashes occur all over the world involve unfamiliar drivers including tourists, visitors, migrants, foreign students, refugees, and other drivers from countryside. Investigations from several countries revealed that fatal or serious crashes involving unfamiliar drivers are probably not reported, so the causes were also not known, but steps toward collecting at least tourist road safety information is slowly changing. This paper compares the available data from twenty countries to examine the probability of fatal road crashes involving unfamiliar drivers. Evidence suggested that the risk for an unfamiliar driver is not the same as for the native drivers and the level of risk depends on the specific nature of the destination. It also identified that the presence of unfamiliar situations increased the risk level for all drivers; therefore it recommended introducing a special sign for unfamiliar drivers.