THE IMPACT OF DRIVING SCHOOLS' TRAINING ON FATAL TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

This paper deals with fatal traffic accidents in the period 2017-2019, caused by drivers who have held driving licenses for less than five years. Specifically, it examines an interconnection between these accidents and the driving schools being completed by these drivers. Furthermore, it analyses whether the perpetrators of traffic accidents with short driving experience are graduates of the same driving schools, and thus, whether the occurrence of serious traffic accidents is directly related to the quality of training in specific driving schools.


INTRODUCTION
Every year, the number of registered vehicles and traffic intensity increases, more and more people get behind the steering wheeland become direct participants in road traffic. Except for undoubted advantages, this causes a great growth of traffic volume of the road network and a constantly increasing demand on traffic and its safety [20,29,32]. Possession of a driving license and active utilisation of a motor vehicle becomes an essential part of an individual's daily life. However, this is closely related to the increased risk of traffic accidents, and unfortunately also those resulting in death. Road safety depends on many factors, including the efficiency of the technical system and the behaviour of the driver of the vehicle. Therefore, traffic accident rates represent a serious societal problem with a huge impact on people's lives and their property, hence, requires special attention [6,7,22]. Therefore, road transport safety is a very complex issue, including the following factors: technical [12,13,25], environmental [18,37,38], psychological [10,31], legal [14] and socio-economic [17,23,33,35]. Besides, road transport safety is the subject of activities of many states, social and international institutions.
Numerous scientific publications have been devoted to the above-mentioned factors. For example, Skrúcaný and Gnap [36] investigated dangers related to heavy goods vehicle transportation under different loads and in varying conditions of operating as well as during the braking process. In [12,13] presents selected aspects of maintenance and reliability of vehicles safety systems during its operation in a chosen transport company. Cernicky et al., [5] suggest that one of the possibilities of reduction of the number of traffic accidents in the Slovak Republic is the implementation of ITS on selected parts of the road network. Jurecki et al., [18] investigated the behaviour of car drivers in simulated surrounding situations of road traffic accidents. During these tests, the simulation concerned a road traffic accident risk situation involving pedestrians and passenger cars intruding into the road area. Ellison et al., in work [16] identified drivers' behaviours and their relationship to the occurrence of a road traffic accidents risk. These (individual) behavioural measures correctly predicted 68% of crashinvolved drivers (26 drivers) and 87% of non-crash-involved drivers (141 drivers) [16]. Road transport safety issues can be referred to as threats in the workplace, especially in the case of professional drivers [24,30].
Alispahić et al., [4], investigated the impact of young drivers training in the function of road traffic safety. The education of drivers, especially younger ones, can significantly affect road traffic safety and could contribute to environmental protection as well as reduction of external costs [4]. Subsequently, an accident rate of drivers with short driving experience has become a substantial problem. According to statistics published by the Presidium of the Police Force of the Slovak Republic [26][27][28], in a comparison of drivers depending on the length of practice, showed that drivers holding driving licenses for less than five years cause considerable fatal traffic accidents. The minimum limitation for obtaining a driving license in the Slovak Republic is the age of 17. Nevertheless, after obtaining a driving license, drivers do not have sufficient experience in driving a motor vehicle, thus, becoming one of the riskiest groups of drivers in the field of road safety [34]. In emergencies, driver needs to make the right decision in a fraction of a second, which is related to the reaction time. Such research was conducted, among others, by [15,19].
Since the quality of training in driving schools is one of the factors affecting the behaviour of this risky group of drivers and the occurrence of road traffic accidents, the authors examine in this paper, the possible impact of driving schools on road traffic accidents resulting in death.

DATA AND METHODS
Driving schools represent training and educational facilities registered under Act no. 93/2005 Coll. on driving schools (Act 93/2005 Coll., on driving schools) and on the amendment of certain acts as amended [3]. Each driving school is registered specially to provide education and training of participants in preparation for an examination of professional competence for issuance of a license to drive motor vehicles. A driving school is registered by the locallycompetent district office after fulfilling the stipulated legal conditions. Such a school must have a particular space at its disposal in which the driving school operates, an office, a classroom, a training ground or a simulator, training vehicles designed and approved to conduct courses for the group of driving licenses for which the driving school is approved for [8].
Training vehicles and driving school classrooms to ensure transparent training and teaching (course) must be equipped with a permanently-mounted device enabling data records on identity of the course participant and driving instructor participating in practical training and theoretical course, and on journeys, routes and driving times, times in classrooms as well as on the simulator. This data is automatically transmitted from the devices to the Unified Road Traffic Information System [1].
Every single applicant for a driving license must undergo training in a driving school to the extent being required. The scope and content of the course are set out in the curriculum of driving courses issued by the Ministry of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic [11]. The course is divided into theoretical and practical parts. The duration of a driving course depends on the group of driving licenses for which the training is being conducted. For instance, for the most requested group of driving license B (passenger car), it is mandatory to complete 32 teaching hours in terms of theoretical lessons and 39 teaching hours of practical driving experience (in cases that a driving school disposes of a training ground). One lesson lasts 45 minutes.

Traffic accidents in the Slovak Republic in the period 2017-2019
Given the observed period of 2017, 2018 and 2019, accident rates in the Slovak Republic and their consequences were as follows (Table 1)  The major causes of fatal accidents are very similar and reoccur every year, they are as follows [14,24,28]:  violation of driver's duties (that is, failure to pay full attention to driving and negligence of road traffic situations; not giving priority to pedestrians who enter the road and passes a pedestrian crossing; driving under reduced ability due to accident, illness, nausea or fatigue),  speeding,  inappropriate driving method (style),  violation of special provisions on pedestrians,  improper overtaking,  violation of the road traffic user's obligation,  wrong turn,  incorrect driving through an intersection,  incorrect turning and reversing,  incorrect entry into the road.

Analysis of the impact of driving schools' training on fatal traffic caused by drivers with short driving experience in the period 2017-2019
For this study, data was requested from the Presidium of the Police Force of the Slovak Republic, regarding drivers with driving experience of up to five years who caused traffic accidents resulting in death in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Subsequently, all the accident perpetrators underwent an investigation to determine the driving school they completed their driving training. Specific input data was recorded and consequently listed in Table 2-4. Due to personal data protection, only data necessary for the examination was summarised in the tables. For the sake of proper distinction, individuals who completed their driving training in a driving school located in one district, have their schools marked with particular letters within one table. However, If the symbol † appears next to any of the data value, it means that the accident perpetrator died in the accident.
Tab. 2 Traffic accidents resulting in death caused by drivers with driving experience up to five years in 2017 No.
Year of birth of the traffic accident perpetrator resulting in death Year of obtaining the driving license of the traffic accident perpetrator resulting in death  Table 2 shows that in 2017, 32 drivers with driving experience less than five years caused traffic accidents resulting in death. However, none of the perpetrators was a graduate of the same driving school; that is, each of them completed driver training in different driving schools.
Tab. 3 Traffic accidents resulting in death caused by drivers with driving experience up to five years in 2018 No.
Year of birth of the traffic accident perpetrator resulting in death Year of obtaining the driving license of the traffic accident perpetrator resulting in death  Table 3 presents 37 drivers with driving experience less than five years caused traffic accidents resulting in death in 2019. Only two of these perpetrators were graduates of the same driving school (marked in red).
The data above confirms that from 2017 to 2019,a total of 99 traffic accidents were caused by drivers with less than five years of driving experience. Each of the perpetrators of these accidents was a graduate of a distinct driving school, except for two of them who graduated in the same driving school. This involved the district of Zilina; with one person graduating from this driving school in 2018 and the other in 2019. Both fatal traffic accidents occurred in 2019.
On the one hand, from the examined sample of drivers with driving experience of up to five years who caused traffic accidents resulting in death in 2017-2019, it was almost not detected that they were graduates of the same driving schools; therefore, some driving schools educate drivers who cause fatal traffic accidents to an increased extent than others. On the other hand, the examined data does not verify the quality of training in driving schools in the Slovak Republic to be at a sufficient level or whether the reason for the high incidence of fatal accidents among drivers with short driving experience needs to be sought in driving schools. Given the fact that the perpetrators of these accidents are mostly from different driving schools, the results of an analysis being conducted may also indicate that there is a systemic lack in the training quality [18].
Lastly, in this context, it should be noted that the investigated sample of traffic accident perpetrators are composed of respondents from the whole Slovak Republic and was quite low compared to the total number of registered driving schools in the Slovak Republic as well as the number of driving licenses being issued. For illustration, the following table (Table 5) summarises the data on the number of registered driving schools and the issued driving licenses in the period of 2017-2019 [27].

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION -QUALITY OF TRAINING IN DRIVING SCHOOLS
Each participant who has undergone a driving school course training for driving a motor vehicle receives a document from the driving school called "Certificate of Completion of the Course". This certificate is one of the documents to apply with in an examination of professional competence of applicants for a driving license [2,9]. There is no formal difference among the certificates issued by the individual driving schools, however, there may be huge differences among individual driving training on which the certificates are issued. This lies in the quality of training the driving school graduate paid for.
The quality of driving school training cannot be formally measured. Rather, it is a kind of abstract concept, which may be described by either individual preferences or general interest. For example, from a driving course participant standpoint, a good driving school is one, which has the lowest possible price, which he/she does not have to attend and will provide him with a driving license. On the contrary, in terms of the state, a good driving school is one that complies with generally binding legal regulations, has its own suitable technical base curriculum with experienced instructors, physically engaging participants in driving courses where they receive full-featured driving training [18]. However, these preferences tend to be ambivalent. Participants cannot receive high-quality training for a suspiciously low price for the course and vice versa. Unfortunately, many participants are not aware of this simple rule, so they prefer driving schools with a low-price course, even at the cost of the negative consequences that may emerge from such a wrong choice [21]. Driving schools are willing to meet their requirements and compete with each other in not only prices, but also in the fact that the participant in the driving course does not have to complete training at the driving school in full-range, or even attend it at all. The low price of a driving course is usually connected with non-participation in 53.
this training, which of course is illegal. The results of the control activities of the Ministry of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic in driving schools have constantly proven this phenomenon.
For instance, in 2019, in driving schools, inspections for teaching the theoretical background were conducted, discovering that 15 of 18 inspected classrooms of driving schools, in which teaching the theory was supposed to take place, had no participant present in them, and no fullparticipation was recorded in the remaining 3 classrooms. Of the total number of driving schools being inspected, in four classrooms, no identification device was available, that is, participants were fictitiously identified by driving school instructors from different nonapproved areas without their presence in the theoretical course of these driving schools. From the conducted inspections, the total number of identified persons was 169, while 160 of them were not present in the classrooms during the inspection. These were random inspections of driving schools throughout the Slovak Republic. Other negative facts found out during the inspections include: a significant part of driving schools carried out their practical driving courses in road traffic or in a training ground without the physical participation of an identified participant in the vehicle, with the instructor being alone in the driver's seat, or the persons sitting in the vehicle misleadingly identified (the instructor was identified as another instructor or as a course participant, etc.) [26,37]. Furthermore, inspections conducted by the Ministry of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic have confirmed that during 2018 and 2019, up to 265 participants in driving courses did not complete training at all in three driving schools; yet, driving licenses were issued to them. Courses and lessons related to teaching the theory and practical training with these people were fictitiously reported and not taught. In most cases, participants in such driving courses never attended any driving school. After reporting the entire training, such "graduates" were subsequently registered for examination of professional competence of applicants for driving licenses. Fictitious courses were conducted for passenger cars, trucks (freight vehicles), tractors, motorcycles, as well as buses [26,28].
The inspections' findings in association with driving schools in the Slovak Republic resulted in a statement that the high incidence of fraud in this field is a long-term issue and, if this is defined as one of the criteria for the quality of driving schools' training, then it is not of a high level from this point of view. Although specific criteria for the quality of driving schools' training are not clearly defined, it generally applies that without the participation of students in driving training, grave consequences would ensue.

CONCLUSIONS
The paper aimed to find out whether some driving schools, more than others, produce to an increased extent, drivers who cause fatal accidents, and also whether the occurrence of serious traffic accidents is directly related to the quality of training in particular driving schools. The aforementioned was investigated on 99 perpetrators of traffic accidents resulting in death, caused from 2017 to 2019 by drivers who have held driving licenses for less than five years. An analysis of the data being investigated showed that each of these accidents' perpetrators was a graduate of a distinct driving school, except for two that graduated from the same driving school. Concerning the rest, however, the occurrence of this phenomenon is insignificant.
Following the above, it has not been proven that some driving schools educate more drivers who cause more fatal accidents than others do. Simultaneously, however, the analysis findings may indicate that this involves a systemic shortcoming in the quality of driving schools' training since the perpetrators of fatal traffic accidents are mostly from numerous driving schools throughout the Slovak Republic. This especially applies if the share of drivers with short driving experiences that cause fatal accidents to other groups of drivers is high, as is the incidence and severity of deficiencies identified in the operation of the driving schools.
Many factors affect the occurrence of fatal accidents. By identifying, recognising and analysing them, as well as taking proper actions, it is possible to make some progress towards eliminating their impact. As far as driving schools are concerned, in addition to effective repression for violating legal regulations, one of the measures could be, for example, a change in the curriculum of driving courses with special emphasis on teaching and training in areas where the most common causes of traffic accidents occur.