News from the Virginia Driving Safety Lab

The YN Blog will feature the research and experiences of  five U.Va. undergraduates working in the University of Virginia Health System’s Virginia Driving Safety Laboratory.

Student contributors, Melissa Avalos, Annie Friedell, Emily Meissel, Glenda Ngo and Julia Thrash work with Ann Lambert and Youth-Nex Associate Director, Daniel Cox.

About the Virginia Driving Safety Laboratory: In order to improve the safety on our roadways, the lab conducts driving safety research and provides patients with the opportunity receive comprehensive assessments of their driving abilities.

Related posts will be found under Driving; and Ann Lambert, Dan Cox.

It is widely acknowledged that driving while under the influence of alcohol is dangerous. However, what many fail to realize is that distracted driving, or simultaneously making use of two of our most useful innovations, the cell phone and motor vehicle, is just as dangerous as drinking and driving, but in different ways, according to Strayer, Drews, and Crouch (2006). Continue reading

Study Addresses Lack of Research on Adolescent Drivers with Autism

By Daniel J. Cox, Youth-Nex associate director, University of Virginia professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, Internal Medicine, and Ophthalmology; and Ann Lambert, post-doctoral fellow, Virginia Driving Safety Laboratory, University of Virginia Medical Center.

The researchers’ study seeks to gain a better understanding of driving and
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) by surveying parents/caregivers
of adolescents/
young adults with ASD who were
currently attempting, or had previously attempted,
to learn
to drive.
Daniel Cox Driving simulator

Related posts can be found under Research and Driving.

Optimizing Independence of Adolescents with High Functioning Autism

Driving has major implications for independence, employment and socialization. It also represents potential risk to personal health and the health of others. Safe operation of a motor vehicle is a responsibility that involves controlling a two-ton vehicle traveling through time and space, at high speeds, multi-tasking negotiating traffic, signal, road and weather conditions. Continue reading

What Really Causes Teen Driving Accidents?

Ann LambertCars driving on a road

By Ann Lambert, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Psychology and Behavioral Medicine Center, Dept of Psychiatry & NB Sciences

Related posts will be found under Driving

Vehicular collisions are the leading cause of death in adolescence, a statistic often attributed to lack of experience and “poor judgment.” Nonetheless, a significant subgroup of drivers pass through adolescence with no vehicular collisions or citations despite minimal driving experience. What, then, are these young drivers doing right? Continue reading