Road safety education in the Ashanti and greater Accra regions, Ghana: drivers' perspectives

Abstract

The study assessed road safety education in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions in Ghana from the drivers' perspective. Defensive driving course model, Bergs Theory and Bloom's Taxonomy Domain for a choice guided the study. This culminated in the use of mixed method approach comprising qualitative and qualitative sources of data such as in-depth interviews and questionnaire administration. Five hundred drivers were selected through quota, accidentally and purposively sampling techniques for the questionnaire administration and fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted. Instruments used were questionnaire and in-depth interviews. Whereas the qualitative data were manually transcribed and SPSS was used to analysed the quantitative data. The results of the study revealed the dominant socio-demographic characteristics of drivers in the study sites. The majority of the drivers acquired driving knowledge via the formal mode of driver education (defensive driving). The results of the analysis further revealed the strengths and shortcomings of Defensive Driving Course Model (DDCM) as against Bloom's Taxonomy of Domain. The perceptions of the drivers against attributes of road safety knowledge were also elicited across sociodemographic characteristics. And the factor analysis indicated that cognitive analysis between facts and inferences and the application of acquired knowledge were the main factors of the drivers' views on road safety. It was recommended that government through DVLA should encourage would be drivers to undergo formal mode of driver education and design graduated licensing for experienced or older drivers.