This report summarizes recent national statistics on the incidence and characteristics of crashes involving driver fatigue, drowsiness, or “asleep-at-the-wheel. For the purposes of this report, these terms are considered synonymous. Principal data sources are the NHTSA General Estimates System (GES) and the Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS), although these data files are acknowledged to have limitations for quantifying this type of crash causal factor. Most data provided are for the five-year period 1989-93. Findings from other studies of the incidence of drowsiness/fatigue in crashes are reviewed. Finally, overviews are provided of NHTSA programs underway to help provide better data to assess this traffic safety problem and more importantly, to develop effective countermeasures. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting