DISTRACTED DRIVING BEHAVIOUR AS INFLUENCED BY GENDER, VEHICLE DRIVER TYPE, TIME OF DAY, AND PRESENCE OF TRAFFIC OFFICER AMONG DRIVERS IN ABUJA, NIGERIA
This study investigated the influence of Gender, Vehicle Driver Type, Time of Day and Presence of Traffic officers on Distracted Driving Behaviour in Abuja. A Naturalistic non-participatory observational design was used with a multi-stage sampling technique. Purposive sampling technique was used to selects two area councils and two sites due to the traffic dynamics of Abuja territory, and convenience sampling technique was utilized to select 385 drivers. The characteristics of the participants include; 358 (92.99%) males, 27(7.01%) females. 100(25.97%) Commercial vehicle drivers, 285 (74.03%) private vehicle drivers. rush-hour periods represented 278(72.21%),107(27.79%) non-rush-hour periods, Presence of Traffic officers242 (62.86%) and absents was 148(37.14%). The instrument used for data collection was a Recording sheet. Five hypotheses was generated and tested using chi-square contingency table and Binary Logistic Regression Analysis. Results revealed Time of day significantly predicted distracted driving behaviour, B = 2.133, SE = 0.755, Wald χ² = 7.976, p = .005, OR = 8.444, 95% CI [1.921, 37.117]. Likewise, the presence of traffic officers significantly predicted distracted driving behaviour, B = 2.220, SE = 0.675, Wald χ² = 10.820, p = .001, OR = 9.212, 95% CI [2.453, 34.587].Most importantly, the interaction between time of day and the presence of traffic officers was statistically significant, B = -1.149, SE = 0.478, Wald χ² = 5.770, p = .016, OR = 0.317, 95% CI [0.124, 0.809].Based on these findings, it is recommended that Traffic authorities should ensure adequate officer presence during times of the day that have been determined to have higher distraction risk.