Driver fatigue and drowsiness in commercial truck drivers is a major concern and is responsible for thousands of accidents and fatalities every year. In this paper we analyzed the driving behavior and degradation of driving performance of commercial truck drivers under sleep deprived and fatigued conditions. A truck driving simulator was set up specifically for this purpose and experiments involving professional truck drivers were conducted. The simulated environment consisted of an 84 kilometer stretch of actual US highway (I-70). A total of thirteen subjects completed the study. It was found from simulation data that drowsiness had no effect on drivers’ speed and acceleration strategies but significantly affected their lane keeping and steering controls. The relationship of vehicle lateral position and steering angle with crash incidences was also investigated and significant patterns in lateral position variations and steering corrections were observed a few minutes before each crash.
Abstract