Innovative road safety measures to address fatigue : review of research and results from a treatment trial.

A recent Austroads study (RS.SS.N.018) identified fatigue as a major contributing factor to rural and remote crashes, and recommended that research be undertaken to address this issue. As a result ST1347 was initiated to identify innovative treatments that have potential as fatigue countermeasures, to identify the effectiveness of these treatments, and to provide information to practitioners about where they might be used. Fatigue is a major contributing factor to rural crashes. The purpose of this project was to identify infrastructure treatments that have potential as fatigue countermeasures, to identify the effectiveness of these treatments, and to provide information to practitioners about where they might be used. The currently used, and potential countermeasures identified fell under the following headings: - Provision of opportunities to rest, and encouragement to do so - Ways of letting drivers know that they should rest - Things that reduce monotony - Alerting drivers to specific hazards, and help avoiding departure from the roadway - Treatments alerting drivers to their departure from the roadway - Protection for drivers if they do depart. Each of these types of treatments is discussed in terms of its safety benefit, and recommendations made for further research where there are gaps in this knowledge. On the basis of this review a treatment was designed and a treatment trial conducted investigating the effectiveness of trivia question signs on driver fatigue levels. It was found that drivers were aware of the treatment signs and experienced increases in alertness as a consequence of exposure to the treatment. However, the results showed no compelling evidence for more enduring reductions in sleepiness as a result of the treatment. It is recommended that the treatment be trialled more widely. It is recommended that those trials increase coverage and exposure and hence the likely persistence of the effect and that the treatments are subject to a long term evaluation of their impact on fatigue related crashes. (Author/publisher)