How dangerous and fatal is fatigue as a road safety issue?
Fatigue is a likely factor in almost one third of single-vehicle crashes in rural areas and the urban area, though mostly dominant in the rural area.
When it comes to driving, two types of fatigue matter â physical fatigue and mental fatigue. Both reduce a driverâs ability to perform essential driving-related duties.
Physical fatigue is the result of physical demanding duties. A full day of roofing or framing, lifting heavy boxes, or strenuous field activities can leave your muscles exhausted and unable to respond as quickly or as effectively as they did when you started the day. In terms of driving, physical fatigue translates to longer reaction times and inaccurate or incorrect responses.
Mental fatigue is the greater concern for most of us. It is the physiological state or condition that decreases mental performance capabilities and impairs cognitive abilities. Mental fatigue reduces driver alertness, focus, attentiveness and decision-making ability in ways that reduce their ability to perform key driving functions.
PRIMARY CAUSES OF FATIGUEÂ
1. Cumulative sleep loss
Sleep is an essential requirement for everyone, but for optimal performance 90% of us require 7.5 to 8.5 hours of sleep every night. Acute sleep loss occurs when an individual gets less than the necessary number of hours of sleep within a 24-hour period. Cumulative sleep loss occurs over several days. For example, if you lose one hour of sleep each night, after five days you have accumulated a sleep debt of five hours. Recovery from sleep debt does not require hour-for-hour pay back â two consecutive nights of good rest will often reduce accumulated sleep debt to zero.
2.Long hours staying awake
The length of working hours are not only the important part that may cause issues relating to road safety, but your working day also matters; itâs how long you are awake. Studies indicate that 16 to 18 hours of continuous wakefulness is associated with significantly reduced performance and alertness.
3. Sleep disorder
Sleep disorders like sleeping apnea, insomnia, night terrors, and others â greatly reduce sleep quality. Eight hours of tossing and turning, dozing and waking does not equal eight hours of sleep. Intermittent sleep prevents you from entering the most essential sleep elements.
4.Medication/ Impairment
Some prescription medications (such as heart, blood pressure and asthma drugs) and over-the-counter medicines (such as pain relievers, cold decongestants, antihistamines and diet pills) contain caffeine or other stimulants that interrupt normal sleep patterns
Managing the use of drugs for an employee who drives
5. Stress and Workload
Eight-hour day that starts with a long commute and is filled with a demanding boss, complex problems, difficult customers, hard decisions, challenging patients or lost shipments is tiring enough. By the time youâre driving home, any delays caused by traffic incidents can leave you frustrated, stressed-out and exhausted â and certainly in less-than-prime condition to diligently complete your driving responsibilities. How you cope with that stress before you head to bed will determine how good of a rest you get that night.
In as much as there are other things that are dangerous as fatigue, fatigue is much more dangerous as most road accidents are reported to be as a result of one form of tiredness or the other.
