Manual Distractions of Ambulance Drivers: Light-and-siren vs. Non-light-and-siren Travel. (September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Grundgeiger, T.; Scharf, M.; Grundgeiger, J.; Scheuchenpflug, R.
• Is Part Of: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society ... Annual Meeting. Volume 58:Part 1(2014)
• Page Start: 1134
• Page End: 1138
• Publication Date: 2014-09
• Subjects: Human engineering -- Congresses; 620.8205
• DOI: 10.1177/1541931214581237
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1541-9312

Abstract

Emergency medical services personnel are involved in more transportation accidents and have higher fatality rates than do other professions, and traveling with light-and-siren is particularly risky. One factor that might contribute to transportation accidents is driver distraction. We investigated what kind of manual secondary tasks – distractions that require the driver to take at least one hand off the steering wheel – ambulance drivers face and compared the relative frequency and proportion of time spent in manual operations not related to driving for light-and-siren travel vs. non-light-and-siren travel. The results indicate that ambulance drivers face more manual distractions when traveling with light-and-siren than non-light-and-siren. In particular, operating the light-and-siren system is causing most of the manual distractions. We discuss the results and potential implication for practice.