Fatigued Driver Statistics
0 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
(NHTSA) compiles numerous statistics on driving
fatigue accidents.
0 Their records indicate that there are more than
55,000 driving fatigue accidents in the U.S. each year.
0 Even worse, surveys conducted by the National Sleep
Foundation show that 60 percent of Americans admit
to driving drowsy.
Fatigued Driver Statistics
0 Statistics show that both cars and trucks are involved
in their share of driving fatigue accidents, but semitruck drivers seem to be particularly at risk.
0 Due to their long hours and packed schedules, big rig
drivers are typically on the road for longer than eight
hours at a time, which the National Sleep Foundation
finds doubles their risk of a truck accident
Deaths and Injuries Related to Driver
Fatigue
0 According to NHTSA figures, driver fatigue kills 1,550
people each year and contributes to 71,000 driver fatigue
injuries.
0 The sad fact is that most of these driving fatigue injuries
and deaths could have been prevented if the driver had
followed a few safety tips at the first signs of fatigue.
0 In particular, experts at DriverFatigueKills.com and the
National Sleep Foundation recommend:
0 • Getting a good night’s sleep
0 • Taking a 15-minute nap if you get tired
0 • Avoiding high-fat meals while driving
Cars
0 Many car accidents are also related to driver fatigue.
0 The National Transportation Safety Board estimates that
52 percent of car accidents are caused by driver fatigue.
0 In addition, driving fatigue accidents may account for 30
percent of traffic fatalities.
0 Most traffic safety organizations admit that driver fatigue
is an often-overlooked area of traffic safety.
0 While many resources are devoted to drunk driving (which
is a significant problem in its own right), driving fatigue
gets less attention and fewer resources.
What does fatigue mean?
0 Everyone has experienced fatigue at some time.
0 The term is used to describe a range of states or conditions -
drowsiness, sleepiness, tiredness, inattention, or exhaustion.
0 Fatigue is the body’s way of reacting to:
0 • lack of sleep;
0 • doing things like working (or driving) at usual sleep times;
0 • long periods of physical or mental exertion; and
0 • some medical conditions and medications.
0 Fatigue is a natural reaction to fairly common situations that
people experience in their daily lives such as working under
constant pressure, parents looking after young children, or
young people missing out on sleep due to frequent late night
activities.
What does fatigue mean?
0 While less likely, fatigue can also occur despite having
adequate sleep or being rested. On a car trip this may be
due to driving on long stretches of open road and
becoming bored through lack of stimulation, the length
of time spent at the wheel, and not taking adequate
breaks during a long trip.
0 There is general agreement that three main factors
contribute to fatigue:
0 • lack of sleep;
0 • time of day; and
0 • time spent performing a task.
Lack of Sleep
0 Without enough sleep an individual will build up a “sleep
debt”.
0 Sleep debt is the difference between the amount of sleep
needed to maintain alertness and performance, and the
actual amount of sleep one has.
0 As little as two hours sleep loss on one occasion can affect
reaction time, mental functioning, memory, mood and
alertness.
0 A build-up of sleep debt has a much greater effect on
reducing alertness and performance, especially on tasks
that need constant attention such as driving.
Time of Day
0 Humans have a sleep-wake cycle, known as the ‘circadian
rhythm’ or ‘body clock’.
0 There are two periods during the 24 hour cycle where the
level of sleepiness is high: during the night/early morning,
and in the afternoon.
0 During these periods of sleepiness, many functions such as
alertness, performance and mood are affected.
0 The effect of the circadian rhythm on road crashes has been
shown in a number of studies.
0 These indicate that fatigue related crashes correspond to the
24 hour variation in sleepiness, with a major peak during the
night and another peak during mid afternoon.
Time Spent on a Task
0 Long periods of activity without rest lead to muscular
fatigue. In the same way, prolonged mental workloads
without rest will lead to reduced alertness and
reluctance to continue the effort.
0 Studies that have looked at driving tasks show that
the length of time on a task affects the quality of
performance.
0 As more time is spent on a task, the level of fatigue
increases, the time to react is slowed, attention and
judgment are reduced and the chances of falling
asleep during the task are increased.
How does fatigue affect safety?
0 A person needs to be alert and focused in order to
drive safely for long periods. Fatigue reduces driving
skills for a number of reasons:
0 • reactions are much slower;
0 • the ability to concentrate is reduced; and
0 • it takes longer to interpret and understand the
traffic situation.
How does fatigue affect safety?
0 Many of the effects are similar to those caused by
alcohol.
0 Getting behind the wheel after 17 hours without sleep
has the same effect on a person’s driving as having a
blood alcohol level of 0.05.
0 Further, going without sleep for 24 hours has a
similar effect on driving performance as having a
blood alcohol concentration of 0.10.
0 At this level the risk of a crash is seven times greater.
How does fatigue affect safety?
0 The most common effects of fatigue on actual
driving behavior include:
0 • difficulty in keeping the car within a lane;
0 • drifting off the road;
0 • more frequent and unnecessary changes in speed; and
0 • not reacting in time to avoid a dangerous situation
(applying the brakes, or turning to avoid an obstacle or
fixed roadside object).
0 These failures lead to a high number of single vehicle
crashes involving the car striking a tree or other rigid
object, and severe head-on collisions.
Are some people more likely to be
affected?
0 While all drivers can experience fatigue to some degree, fatigue is
more likely for people in the following groups, ultimately leading
to a higher crash risk:
0 Young People - many young people have lifestyles that involve
frequent late night activities, not getting enough sleep, taking risks,
and being on the roads during night-time hours.
0 Shift Workers - shift workers are more likely to have disrupted sleep
patterns which lead to fatigue more often. Night shift workers have
the greatest risk of sleep disruption.
0 People with Sleep Disorders – if left untreated, some conditions
such as sleep apnea and insomnia can lead to disrupted sleep on a
regular basis. Constantly feeling sleepy can impair the ability to drive
safely.
0 Fatigue itself increases crash risk. The risk is much greater with
alcohol as even small amounts of alcohol can affect alertness.
Fatigue combined with alcohol severely degrades driving skills.
Motor Vehicle Crashes
0 No. 1 cause of death
0 An estimated 39,000 to 46,000 people
killed in crashes every year
0 More than 2.2 million injuries from
crashes in 2008
Distractions
now join
alcohol and
speeding as
leading factors
in fatal and
serious injury
crashes.
Distracted Driving
0 Driver distractions leading factor in fatal and
serious injury crashes
0 In 2008, 28% of all crashes attributable
to cell phones
0 1.6 million crashes
0 645,000 injuries
0 Cell phone users 4x as likely to crash
Millions of People are
Talking While Driving
0 11% of drivers at any point during
the day are on cell phones
0 81% of drivers admit to talking on
cell phone while driving:
0 74% of Boomers
0 88% of Gen X
0 89% of Gen Y
0 62% of Teen Drivers
Millions of People are
Texting While Driving
0 18% of drivers admit to
texting
while driving:
0 4% of Boomers
0 15% of Gen X
0 39% of Gen Y
0 36% of Teen Drivers
Driving Culture Change
“A century ago, Model T’s brought motoring
to an emerging middle class.
A half century ago, teenagers cuddled in
convertibles at drive-in movies.
A new generation of drivers see cars as an
extension of their plugged-in lives, with iPods,
DVD players and other gadgets.”
USA Today, 2-17-2009
Driving Culture Change
0 Webster’s Dictionary named “distracted driving”
its 2009 Word of the Year
0 In 2009:
0 More than 200 state bills introduced
0 U.S. DOT Distracted Driving Summit held
0 President Obama signed Executive Order
0 NSC membership survey
0 Favorable public opinion polls
How Cell Phones Distract
0 Visual – Eyes off road
0 Mechanical – Hands off wheel
0 Cognitive – Mind off driving
CHALLENGE: Drivers don’t
understand or realize that talking on
a cell phone distracts the brain and
takes focus away from the primary
task of driving.
The Problem
0 Hands-free seen as solution and
mistakenly believed to be safer than
handheld
0 People recognize the risk of talking
on handheld and texting more than
the risk of hands-free
0 Most legislation focuses on only
handheld devices or texting
0 All state laws and some employer
policies allow hands-free devices
Hands-free
devices offer
no safety
benefit
when driving.
The Problem
0 Hands-free seen as solution and
mistakenly believed to be safer than
handheld
0 People recognize the risk of talking
on handheld and texting more than
the risk of hands-free
0 Most legislation focuses on only
handheld devices or texting
0 All state laws and some employer
policies allow hands-free devices
Hands-free
devices offer
no safety
benefit
when driving.
What is a Hands-Free Device?
0 Headset that communicates via wire or wireless
connection to cell phone
0 Factory-installed or aftermarket feature built
into vehicle (voice recognition)
Cognitive Distraction
0 Cognitive distraction still exists with hands-
free
0 Talking occurs on both handheld and
hands-free cell phones
0 Mind focuses on conversation
0 Listen and respond to disembodied voice
Hands-free
devices do not
eliminate
cognitive
distraction.
Multitasking: A Brain Drain
0 Multitasking for the brain
is a myth
0 Human brains do not
perform two tasks at same
time
0 Brain handles tasks
sequentially
0 Brain switches between
one task and another
The four lobes of the brain.
Source: National Institutes of Health
Multitasking: A Brain Drain
Brain engages in a constant process to:
1. Select information brain will attend to
2. Process information
3. Encode to create memory
4. Store information
It must also:
5. Retrieve
6. Execute or act on information
When brain is overloaded these steps are affected
Multitasking: A Brain Drain
Encoding Stage
0 Brain filters information due to overload
0 Drivers not aware of information filtered out
0 Information does not get into memory
0 Drivers miss critical information on potential hazards
Inattention blindness and encoding.
Source: National Safety Council
Multitasking: A Brain Drain
0 Brain juggles tasks, focus and attention
0 Brain switches between primary and secondary tasks
0 Inattention blindness
0 When people do 2 cognitively complex tasks
(driving and using a cell phone), causing brain to
shift focus
0 Bottleneck
0 Different regions of brain must pull from a shared
and limited resource for unrelated tasks
Inattention Blindness
0 A type of cognitive distraction
0 “looking” but not “seeing”
0 Hands-free drivers less likely to see:
0 High and low relevant objects
0 Visual cues
0 Exits, red lights and stop signs
0 Navigational signage
0 Content of objects
Inattention Blindness
A narrowed scope
Where drivers not using a
hands-free cell phone looked.
Where drivers using a
hands-free cell phone looked.
Source: Transport Canada
Multitasking:
Impairs Performance
0 Carnegie Mellon University Study (2008)
0 Took fMRI pictures of brain while drivers
listened to sentences and drove simulator
0 Literally see the results…
Driving alone
L
Driving with sentence listening
R
L
Functional magnetic resonance imaging images.
Source: Carnegie Mellon University
R
Multitasking:
Impairs Performance
0 Just listening to sentences on cell phones decreased
activity by 37% in the brain’s parietal lobe which
perceives movement, integrates sensory information
and also has importance for language processing
0 Listening and language comprehension drew cognitive
resources away from driving
0 Also decreased activity in brain’s occipital lobe which
processes visual information
Multitasking:
Impairs Performance
0 We can walk and chew gum safely because
it is not a cognitively-demanding task
0 But even cell phone-using pedestrians act
unsafely.
They are less likely to:
0 Look for traffic before stepping into street
0 Look at traffic while crossing street
0 Notice unusual objects placed along path
Multitasking:
Impairs Performance
0 Driving involves a more complex set of tasks
than walking:
0 Visual
0 Manual
0 Cognitive
0 Auditory
0 A driver’s job is to watch for hazards, but this
cannot be done when brain is overloaded
Cell Phone: Driver Risks
0 Inattention blindness
0 Slower reaction/response times
0 Problems staying in lane
Passenger Conversations
0 Adult passengers share awareness of driving
situation, a safety benefit
0 Front seat passengers reduce risk of crashing
by 38% compared to cell phone conversations
0 Adults with passengers have lower crash rates
than adults without passengers
0 Not true for novice teen drivers
Prevention Steps
0 Widespread education
0 Corporate cell phone bans
0 Legislation
0 Law enforcement
0 Technology
More than 1.6 million crashes are
caused by cell phone use and texting
while driving each year.
Joe, 12
Bailey, Merideth,
Hannah, Sara and Katie
Cady, 16
Erica, 9
Jean and Jay, 58
Countless lives
have been lost as a result.
Linda, 61
Jason, 38
Lauren, 17
Matt, 25
Frances, 13
Jordan, 18
Help us save lives.
Tell everyone you know.
On the Road, Off the Phone