Expert Recommendations for Improving Driving Safety for Teens and Adult Drivers with ADHD.

Abstract

For many teenagers and young adults, driving emerges as an essential activity of daily living that promotes independence and facilitates mobility. While several aspects of driving become automatic over time, driving continues to be a complex task involving coordination of cognitive and motor demands that continuously shift based on changes in the environment (Fuermaier et al., 2015). As such, adolescents and adults that present with underdeveloped attention, inhibitory control, and executive functions are at heightened risk for compromised driving safety (Barkley et al., 1996). Drivers with ADHD experience more frequent crashes and a higher number of traffic violations (Aduen et al., 2015, 2018; Fischer et al., 2007; Vaa, 2014), with evidence suggesting that these rates do not decline in adulthood like they do for drivers without ADHD (Kay et al., 2009). On average, drivers with ADHD are involved in a motor vehicle crash every two years, and this frequency doubles for drivers with the most severe ADHD symptoms (Aduen et al., 2018). Drivers with ADHD are more likely to have their driver’s license suspended or revoked, and are more likely to be legally ‘at fault’ for traffic accidents (Aduen et al., 2015; Jerome et al., 2006; Vaa, 2014). Particularly scary for parents are studies showing that drivers with ADHD experience more severe crashes and are more likely to be killed in a car crash than drivers without ADHD (Aduen et al., 2016; Chang et al., 2014).