Project manager: Full Prof. Dragan Peraković, Ph.D.

Official website: http://www.fpz.unizg.hr/ne-mobitelu/.

The Department of Information and Communication Traffic of Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences obtained a project The impact of mobile device usage on drivers' behavior within the National Road Safety Programme of the Republic of Croatia, Section 7: Mobile phone; Subsection: a) Using mobile phone while driving. The project is conducted in cooperation with Croatian chamber of transport engineers (http://www.hkitpt.hr/).

It is a well-known fact that drivers are being frequently distracted by their mobile phones and that is an issue that often causes traffic accidents. From 2010 to 2014, the number of offenses caused by mobile phone usage while driving has doubled - from 19.850 to 40.425 in the Republic of Croatia (Croatia). Because of these numbers, Croatia has started to invest in methods for improving prevention of the use of mobile phone while driving. Introduction of such methods has proven effective by reducing the number of offenses in 2015 by 3.4%. Except from financial penalties, activities in the form of prevention and raising awareness about the negative impact of mobile phone usage on drivers’ behavior and the road traffic safety in Croatia are insufficiently pronounced.

According to data provided by the National Road Safety Programme of the Republic of Croatia 2011-2020, the group of highest risks includes all drivers who are frequently involved in passenger and transit traffic, including professional drivers such as truck and bus drivers. The taxi drivers must be considered within the project, due to inevitable mobile phone usage in order to obtain competitiveness on the current market.

Some of the methods applicable in prevention of mobile phone usage while driving are preventive actions and drivers’ education for raising the awareness about the negative impact of mobile phone usage on drivers’ behavior. These methods can provide better information about the negative impact of the mobile phone usage while driving using a various, intensive and numerous promotional activities and planned workshops in Croatia.

The aim of the project is to raise drivers’ awareness by providing substantial information and education to the drivers in order to realize improved prevention of mobile phone usage and consequently reduce negative impact of phone usage while driving. For that purpose, the project shall include monitoring and analysis of drivers’ behavior in real everyday traffic as well as in controlled conditions. Personal vehicle drivers and professional drivers will be interviewed throughout Croatia.

The project will publicly share the acquired knowledge through the national Web 2.0 portal uniquely formed for presentation and distribution of relevant information about the negative impact of using mobile phone on road traffic safety. Also, the website shall include news on ongoing promotional activities and organized workshops and roundtables. Project activities are partially focused on promotional activities and organization of more workshops and roundtables.