Three main sources of data provide information about the size and nature of the problem of driver fatigue. First, epidemiological evidence suggests that between 5% and 20% of crashes in Australia are fatigue-related, depending on criteria used for coding involvement of fatigue. Comparison of different groups of drivers indicates that the risk of fatigue involvement for trucks is no greater overall than for cars, despite the vastly longer distances travelled by these drivers. Among trucks, longer combination vehicles seem to be over-represented. Buses, on the other hand, seem to be involved less frequently than other groups in fatigue-related crashes. The involvement of fatigue appears to be considerably more prominent for certain types of crashes, however. The frequency of fatigue involvement is greater in single vehicle accidents, those that occur in remote areas and those that occur at night. Information about the nature and scope of the problem also comes from data collected in survey form concerning the prevalence of driver fatigue. It seems that between 10% and 50% of truck drivers drive while fatigued on a regular basis. The problem seems to be of considerably lesser magnitude for long distance coach drivers, approximately 20% of whom report that driving while fatigued is a regular problem. Commercial drivers who report regularly driving while fatigued are more likely to have been involved in a crash than those who do not. The self-reported use of stay awake pills in the long distance road transport industry varies between 5% and 46%, and seems in part at least to reflect the reported size of the problem. Among the general community, between 4% and 12% of urban drivers report having had a fatigue-related accident or near accident, with 36% of drivers reporting commencing to drive when fatigued. Finally, the contribution of sleep disorders to the. scope of the driver fatigue problem is being investigated. The data suggest that sleepiness associated with sleep pane affects driving ability and may place people with such disorders at high risk of fatigue-related driver accidents. However, to date, Australian data do not strongly suggest a particular risk of sleep disorders for truck drivers, nor a particular role for sleep disorders in commercial driver fatigue. (A)
Samenvatting