Driver Fatuige
Welcome to NAFMP
Driver fatigue: symptoms, cause and effects
Being fatigued significantly increases the risk of a crash. It makes us less aware of what is happening on the road and impairs our ability to respond quickly and safely if a dangerous situation arises. Driver fatigue is believed to contribute to more than 30 of road crashes.
It is very difficult for drivers to accurately assess their own level of fatigue. The ability to self- assess becomes increasingly impaired as you get more fatigued, however the self-confidence in this ability remains. Nevertheless, there are some warning signs to look out for, including:
Trouble focussing, or narrowing of attention
Head nodding, or inability to keep the eyes open
Not remembering the last few minutes
Poor judgement, slower reaction time
Daydreaming and wandering thoughts
Constant yawning or rubbing your eyes
Keep in mind that if you are experiencing any of these symptoms of driver fatigue, it is very likely that your driving performance is already impaired.
There are two main causes of driver fatigue:
Lack of quality/quantity of sleep
Driving at times of the day when you would normally be sleeping.
The end result is not getting enough sleep, which can lead to a build-up of a sleep debt – this is essentially the sleep that you owe yourself. The only way to repay this debt is by sleeping.
Until you can catch up on lost sleep you will have a greater risk of having a fatigue-related accident.
A number of factors influence the likelihood that a driver will become fatigued, these include:
How long you have been awake particularly beyond about 17 hours
Time of day: your body and brain have a biological clock circadian rhythm that influences how alert or drowsy we are at certain times of the day
The quantity and quality of your last period of sleep
Your level of physical or mental activity at the time eg long boring stretches of road make it difficult to maintain alertness and vigilance
The presence of untreated sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea or narcolepsy
Nobody is immune to the effects of driver fatigue; however some groups of people are more at risk than others:
Young drivers: the combination of inexperience and night driving
Shift workers and those working extended hours: Shift workers are 6 times more likely to be in a fatigue-related crash, whether that be at work operating machinery or vehicles or commuting
Commercial drivers: Long distance driving, often at night
Business travellers: Drivers suffering from jet lag and crossing time zones often suffer from restricted and/or poor quality sleep
Effects and consequences of driver fatigue
As we have emphasised in previous blogs, the consequences of driver fatigue can be disastrous. Because fatigue impairs mental processing and decision making abilities, drivers can lapse into a micro-sleep without realising. This may only last a few seconds, but if it coincides with the need to perform some critical driving task e.g. turning the wheel or responding to a stop signal, the risk of crashing is greatly increased.
These accidents typically involve a single vehicle that departs the driving lane and collides with another object, such as a tree beside the road or another vehicle. The driver is often alone, having been driving for some hours, often between midnight and 6am. The consequences of accidents attributed to driver fatigue are often the most serious in terms of death, injuries and property damage because the fatigued driver makes no attempt to avoid the impending crash.
This is why the effects of driver fatigue are so dangerous.
Information on how to develop a corporate culture that facilitates reduced driver fatigue
Fatigue management education for drivers, drivers families, carrier executives and managers, shippers/receivers, and dispatchers
Information on sleep disorders screening and treatment
Driver and trip scheduling information
Information on Fatigue Management Technologies
For the past several years, Canadian and American regulators, carriers, and researchers have worked on the development of a comprehensive approach for managing fatigue. This work has been led by a consortium of government and industry agencies with an interest in developing a more effective means of dealing with professional driver fatigue.
The NAFMP Steering Committee is comprised of Transport Canada, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Alberta Transportation, Alberta Workers Compensation Board, Alberta Employment and Immigration, Société de l assurance automobile du Québec, Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail du Québec, Alberta Motor Transport Association and the American Transportation Research Institute.
NAFMP Steering Committee members have committed significant time and resources to the development of a comprehensive FMP that would enhance a carrier s ability to effectively deal with the challenges of fatigue in a highly competitive, widely dispersed, and rapidly changing industry.
National reforms to combat heavy vehicle driver fatigue are about making the roads safer and fairer, not just for heavy vehicle drivers, but for all road users.
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