Also in the Netherlands there is an increasing awareness that driving while tired is an important factor in the occurrence of road accidents. This literature study aims at providing an overview of the knowledge and insights about the relationship between fatigue and road safety. The study showed that fatigue has many more causes than the time somebody has been driving. Too little sleep or a poor quality sleep, the time of day, and stress situations all contribute to the occurrence of fatigue. Determining the extent to which fatigue plays a part in accidents occurring is extremely awkward. It is almost impossible to objectively diagnose fatigue. When the various foreign data sources are combined, it must be concluded that fatigue is a (partial) cause in 10-15% of all severe accidents. There is no reason to suppose that in the Netherlands this percentage is substantially different. The short-term possibilities of taking measures to reduce the number of fatigue-related accidents are limited, especially for the 'normal' car driver. The only thing that can be done at the moment is in the sphere of information. In addition, for professional drivers there are legal possibilities concerning driving hours, duration, and rest periods and their enforcement, but there is also the possibility of starting so-called fatigue management programmes and/or in combination with propagating a safety culture within haulage companies. In the more distant future, there are possibilities in the sphere of intelligent systems that automatically detect and, if necessary, intervene. There are various promising developments, but their large-scale application will take some time. This
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