Risk factors

Weighing up the Risk

 In research carried out in 2005 by the Loughborough University Sleep Research Centre, it was discovered that of the 29,000 serious injuries and 3,200 deaths in road accidents in that  year, tiredness was the single most common cause.

In 2010 there were 2,550 deaths through road traffic accidents in Britain, a significant fall over previous years, showing measures taken by the Department for Transport were being observed.  Every motorway and trunk road now displays permanent signage reading ‘Tiredness kills’ and ‘Take a Break’, and drivers, both commercial and private, would appear to be taking notice.

But figures for accidents where sleep or tiredness are a contributing factor remain stubbornly high.  It has been shown that tiredness is the principal cause of around 20% of all motorway accidents leading to 300 deaths involving commercial vehicles every year. And 40% of all sleep-related accidents, on motorways and major roads, involve commercial vehicles.

The Department for Health, the Police, the Department for Transport and road safety groups such as ROSPA and BRAKE all agree that driver tiredness is a major factor in causing accidents on Britain’s roads.

Commercial vehicles account for no more than four per cent of vehicles on the roads, yet they contribute to twenty per cent of road accident fatalities. With daytime sleepiness a significant factor, no other cohort of workers has the opportunity or the ability to cause mayhem on the scale of an HGV and a driver with undiagnosed OSA at the wheel.

Accidents involving sleeping drivers are made much worse because the driver makes no attempt to check his speed or take avoiding action to lessen the impact of a collision. He simply does not see the obstacle ahead. As a consequence, what might have been, at its worst, a slight collision with limited damage becomes a very serious, perhaps fatal, smash. In fact, research has shown that an accident caused by falling asleep at the wheel is two to three times more likely to be fatal.  The risks are real and very apparent, yet many drivers still seem to believe they can drive while knowingly feeling tired.

Government figures indicate that the cost of each death on the road is around £1.2 million; the cost in terms of lives lost and families destroyed goes far beyond that.

Sleeping drivers are responsible for more deaths on the roads than drink drivers and a driver with undiagnosed OSA is 15 times more likely to cause an accident than a driver in good health.

The transport industry insists it is up to the individual driver to get his own problems sorted, so if you continually drive feeling tired, and it has become part of your daily routine, do yourself a big favour and set about getting yourself treatment that will change your life; do that NOW, before you’re involved in a serious accident that really will change your life.