Facts & Figures - Fatigue

Professional driving: before you drive

As a professional driver, you know that the Highway Code says you should always arrive at work sufficiently rested to undertake your duties. Your daily driving duties have been planned and timed to conform with rules and regulations aimed at avoiding sleepiness problems.

Think when driving

You should never put the safety of yourself, passengers or others at risk. So if you feel drowsy,, find a safe place to stop, pull over and take a rest Don’t keep pushing ahead!

Ongoing problems

If you continually suffer drowsiness behind the wheel, turn off your Air Conditioning and open the windows. Air Conditioning blows dry air into the car and dries the eyes making you more tired. If you still suffer then you either need to ensure that you are sleeping properly or may need to seek medical advice.

Loughborough University is the UK's leading Sleep Research Centre. Their findings have proven that every sleep related accident IS avoidable

• 10% of all road accidents are caused by sleepiness
• The majority of sleep related accidents occur on motorways and trunk roads.
• Many sleep related accidents involve LGVs and goods vehicles.
• Research shows that most sleep related accidents between 2.0 am and 6.30 am and between 2.00 pm and 4.00 pm. These are the bodies natural low points
• Sleep related accidents have a higher death & serious injury outcome due to higher speed of impact as the sleeping driver fails to brake.
• Strange but true - in all instances the driver will be conscious of their sleepiness prior to falling asleep for quite a while.
• Unexpectedly, men aged 18 - 30 account for around 50% of sleep related accidents.
• It is considered a greater killer than drink related accidents.