This paper discusses the impact of fatigue on drivers and the countermeasures used to control fatigue. There have been many attempts to estimate the size of the fatigue crash problem. Three principal causes have been identified: sleep loss, driving during evening and night time, and long hours of driving. Countermeasures are divided into behavioural, technological and regulatory measures. There are several hardware devices to alert the driver to impending fatigue or crash. Two systems still under development are described in detail. Regulatory countermeasures have been criticised for not addressing the principal causes of fatigue. For the covering abstract see ITRD E113725 (C 22328 CD-ROM).
Abstract