Iran Occupational Health

Background and aims: taxi drivers are a large group of professional drivers, who spend so much time in driving. Considering traffic collisions as one of the Traffic Safety System in the country, modification of improper driving behaviors of this group can result in a significant decrease in accidents.

Methods: This analytical-descriptive study was conducted on 245 taxi drivers in 2013. A questionnaire aimed into two sections: demographic information and reasons for lack of night use of the automotive lighting system was designed. The content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the experts and professors’ comments and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's coefficient alpha (0.72).

Results: It was found that 26.9% of the drivers do not turn on their automotive lighting system over nigh. Most in main squares of the city (46.2%). Forgetfulness in turning car’s light on (14.28%) and depreciation on car lights (13.06%) are the major reasons. Moreover, a significant relationship was observed among variables like working in taxi driving as the main occupation (P-Value= 0.0001), lack of receiving warning from passengers (P-Value= 0.0001), the level of education (P-Value= 0.012) and lack of using automotive lighting system.

Conclusion: Considering that forgetfulness was the main reason for lack of using the lighting system and most of the drivers have not been received any warning or punishment from police because of lack of using lights overnight, it is essential to use appropriate training and exertion of regulations, as one of the ways to create correct culture of traffic and improve driver performance.