Kentucky Lifesavers Conference Fatigue and Driver Safety

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Kentucky Lifesavers ConferenceFatigue and
Driver Safety
Stuart Lowenthal, Executive Vice President and
Founder, The Little Clinic (Louisville) Kathryn
Hansen, Executive Director Kentucky Sleep Society
(Lexington)

• April 25, 2006

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ROADBLOCKS TO HIGHWAY SAFETY
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HIGH CRASH STATES
Crash Rate gt 1.25 x Average
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FATALITIES
Source KY Transportation Center. December 2005
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HARD FACTS

• 15 people are killed every day in truck related
  crashes
• More truck drivers are killed on the job than any
  other type of employee.
• Highway fatalities An airliner crashing every
  week
• Lack of sleep is the 1 factor leading to driver
  fatigue

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What a Difference an Hour Makes

• A Glance at Sleep Time Before and After Daylight
  Savings Time Changes
•   
• Effects on Vehicle Crashes
•   
• Spring When we lose 1 hour of sleep,
  crashes
• increased more than 7
•  
• Fall When we gain 1 hour of sleep, crashes
• decreased more than 7
•    
• NOTE There are also more reported crashes in
• the fall due to more hours of
  darkness.

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Education Reduces Sleepiness Injuries
EDS Excessive Daytime Sleepiness
Sleep disorders education
Percentages of non-shift daytime workers with EDS
(n120) sustaining occupational injuries in 1997,
1998 and 1999, and the corresponding percentages
among workers without EDS (n412), and the time
of the sleep disorders education. Ref. SLEEP, Vol
25, No. 3, 2002 pp. 317
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WHAT IS FATIGUE?
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FATIGUE A HEALTH AND SAFETY HAZARD

• Poor sleep is common in our 24/7 Society.
  Inability to concentrate focus on details.
• Decision making performance impaired. Drivers
  attention and reactions affected.
• Fatigue/weariness can be managed in the U.S. but
  few industries take initiative.
• Drivers can learn to minimize fatigue.
• (Contd on next page)

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FATIGUE A HEALTH AND SAFETY HAZARD

• Healthful sleep Important Risk Management tool.
• Weariness cannot be toughed out. (Stuarts
  Story)
• Fatigue may be a sleep disorder. Can treat
  with success medically.

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WHAT CAUSES FATIGUE?

• Job Demands
• workload breaks
• shift duration
• type of work

• Human Biology
• sleep
• body clock
• health, age

• Work Organization
• trip scheduling
• work predictability
• pay system

• Life Outside Work
• family friends
• commuting
• standard of living

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Sleep Restrictions Profoundly Reduces Performance
(University of Pennsylvania with 35 healthy
adults)
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SUSTAINED WAKEFULNESS

• 17 Hours .05 Blood Alcohol
• KENTUCKY DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE
• .08 Blood Alcohol
• 24 Hours .10 Blood Alcohol
• Dawson and Reid. Center for Sleep Research -
  University of Australia 1997

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Human Contributing Factors in Fatal Crashes
150
158
Source KY Transportation Center. November 2005
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DROWSY DRIVERS RECEIVE A WAKE-UP CALL

• Study traces link between accidents and being
• sleepy behind the wheel
• By Brigitte Greenberg / Associated Press
• Half had less than 6 hours sleep the night before
  crash.
• Long haul truckers awake for 20 hours plus when
  crashed.
• Half interviewed drivers felt only slightly or no
  drowsiness.
• Experts feel 15 of ALL crashes due to lack of
  sleep.
• RESEARCHER JANE STUTTS AT UNIVERSITY OF NORTH
  CAROLINA HIGHWAY SAFETY CENTER

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ALERTNESS MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
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SLEEP DEPRIVATION Less Sleep Earlier Death

• Nightly Sleep
• Six (6) hours or less 70 earlier death rate.
• Compared with 7 8 hours of sleep per night.
• California Department of Health Study (9 year
  study)

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SLEEP DURATION
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Time of Day and Driving

• Night verses day driving (truck and simulator
  studies)
• greater sleepiness
• slower speed
• more erratic steering
• more erratic lane position
• Accident risk (allowing for the number of trucks
  on the road)
• midnight - 8 am, dozing driver accidents 7 times
  more likely than during the day (USA)
• 3 am 5 am single vehicle accident risk 3 times
  higher than 8 am 4 pm (Sweden)

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SINGLE VEHICLE TRUCK CRASHES
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CONSEQUENCES OF DRIVING SLEEPY FATIGUED

• - Negatively affects work driving
  performance.
•  
• -    Identified as the cause of an increased
  number of injuries and death.
  
• (National Sleep Foundation, 1997)
•  -    During evening and nights workers are 3x
  more likely to suffer an injury
• (Liberty Mutual Research Center Study)

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Falling Asleep at the Wheel
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(No Transcript)