Effects of executive load on crashes and near-crashes for young versus older drivers.

With the increasing use of infotainment systems in vehicles, secondary tasks requiring executive demand may increase crash risk, especially for young drivers. Naturalistic driving data were examined to determine if secondary tasks with increasing executive demand would result in increasing crash risk. Data were extracted from the Second Strategic Highway Research Program Naturalistic Driving Study, where vehicles were instrumented to record driving behavior and crash/near-crash data.