Abstract
One of the aims of most driver screening practices, in addition to a variety of possible
diagnostic and rehabilitation activities, usually is to exclude from the driver
population those persons who are not “safe enough” to drive. In order to realise this
aim i.e., to decide whether or not somebody is “safe enough” to drive a car, we must
estimate his or her individual risk as driver and compare this risk level with a
threshold value.
When estimating a driver’s individual risk we must make certain assumptions, such as
the following: (1) there is such a thing as individual driver risk; (2) it can be expressed
as one parameter; (3) it can be measured or estimated; and (4) thresholds dividing the
driver population into those safe and those unsafe can be identified. All these
assumptions have some problems from both a theoretical and a methodological
perspective. In the present paper, the theoretical and methodological basis of driver
screening is critically discussed.