Culture of distracted driving among intra-city commercial bus drivers in Ile-Ife, South-western Nigeria

- This study considered culture of distraction among intra-city commercial bus drivers in Ile-Ife, Southwestern Nigeria.
- Passenger scouting, fare collection and money counting were prominent non-driving activities among drivers.
- These activities were major causes of distractions to drivers in the study area.
- Loss of concentration were noticed when drivers engaged in these N-DAs.

This study investigated the culture of driving distractions among commercial bus drivers in Ile-Ife, Southwestern Nigeria. The aim was to identify the most prominent non-driving activity (N-DA) causing distraction to drivers. 16 independent research assistants were engaged in naturalistic recording of 128 commercial bus drivers in the study area. Among the variables selected for observation, passenger scouting (93%), fare collection (89.8%) and money counting (75%) were found to be the frequent N-DAs in their order of importance. These variables (passenger scouting, fare collection and money counting), however, have correlations with drivers having no conductor on-board. More so, relationships existed between certain N-DAs (call making, passenger scouting, fare collection sight-seeing and money counting) and loss of concentration by drivers on one hand; and between loss of concentration and the forms the loss of concentration took. It can be concluded from the findings that driving was disrupted and uncoordinated when combined with non-driving activities.