Drowsy driving poses a considerable risk to highway safety, a risk that is likely much greater than that reflected in traditional crash data and which may be comparable to that of distracted and alcohol impaired driving. Based on available data, NHTSA has traditionally estimated driver sleepiness or fatigue to be a primary causal factor in 100,000 police-reported crashes each year in the United States, resulting in more than 71,000 injuries and 1,550 deaths (NHTSA, 2005; Knipling and Wang, 1995). These numbers represent about 1.5 percent of all police-reported crashes and four percent of fatalities (Lyznicki et al., 1995). However, they are widely viewed as conservative estimates of the U.S. drowsy driving problem, both because of underreporting on police crash files as well as the hidden role that drowsiness likely plays in the much larger number of crashes attributed to driver inattention or error. Results from a recent national survey on distracted and drowsy driving suggest that daytime drowsy driving crashes may be especially underreported (Royal, 2003). The objective of this research was to establish the potential for identifying daytime and nighttime drowsy driving crashes from characteristics on police crash reports. (Author/publisher)
Abstract