Identifying the changes in driving behavior that underlie the decrease in crash risk over the first few
months of driving is key to efforts to reduce injury and fatality risk in novice drivers. This study
represented a secondary data analysis of 1148 drivers who participated in the UK Cohort II study. The
Driver Behavior Questionnaire was completed at 6 months and 1, 2 and 3 years after licensure. Linear
latent growth models indicated significant increases across development in all four dimensions of
aberrant driving behavior under scrutiny: aggressive violations, ordinary violations, errors and slips.
Unconditional and conditional latent growth class analyses showed that the observed heterogeneity in
individual trajectories was explained by the presence of multiple homogeneous groups of drivers, each
exhibiting specific trajectories of aberrant driver behavior. Initial levels of aberrant driver behavior were
important in identifying sub-groups of drivers. All classes showed positive slopes; there was no evidence
of a group of drivers whose aberrant behavior decreased over time that might explain the decrease in
crash involvement observed over this period. Male gender and younger age predicted membership of
trajectories with higher levels of aberrant behavior. These findings highlight the importance of early
intervention for improving road safety. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding the
behavioral underpinnings of the decrease in crash involvement observed in the early months of driving.
ã2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license