Asleep at the Wheel

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Asleep at the Wheel ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL A NATIONAL COMPENDIUM OF EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE DROWSY DRIVING CONTENTS Background to the Issue ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3 How We Got Here .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Research and Development ........................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Partnering With Public and Private Stakeholders ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Public Education and Awareness Needs ......................................................................................................................................................5 Vehicle Technology Needs ..............................................................................................................................................................................5 Organizations .............................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Research and Development .................................................................................................................................................................................. 6 Quantifying Drowsy Driving ........................................................................................................................................................................... 6 National Survey of Drowsy Driving Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors ....................................................................................... 6 Drowsy-Driving Data Collection and Reporting by Law Enforcement ..............................................................................................7 Driver Physical Factors Leading to Unintentional Lane-Departure Crashes ......................................................................................7 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System .................................................................................................................................................7 Sleep in America Poll ........................................................................................................................................................................................7 Crash Avoidance Systems Data Analysis ..................................................................................................................................................... 8 Biomarker Development ................................................................................................................................................................................. 8 Approaches To Address Drowsy Driving .......................................................................................................................................................... 10 Drowsy Driving at Work ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 10 Helping Employers Address Drowsy Driving at Work ............................................................................................................................ 10 Fatigue Training and Intervention Research .............................................................................................................................................11 Fatigue Risk Management Guidelines for Emergency Medical Services .........................................................................................11 Commercial Motor Vehicle Operators and Rail Workers ......................................................................................................................11 Legislation and Enforcement .............................................................................................................................................................................. 12 Current State Laws........................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Future State Laws ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 12 Law Enforcement ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 12 Highway Safety in the States ........................................................................................................................................................................ 12 Public Education and Awareness ....................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Public Meetings ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 14 Education and Awareness Programs ......................................................................................................................................................... 15 Vehicle Technology ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Foundations of Drowsy Driver Feedback ................................................................................................................................................. 18 Vehicle Technology Adoption and Education ......................................................................................................................................... 18 Automated Technologies and Vehicles ..................................................................................................................................................... 19 Partnerships and Future Coordination .............................................................................................................................................................20 ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL: A National Compendium of Efforts to Eliminate Drowsy Driving 1 2 ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL: A National Compendium of Efforts to Eliminate Drowsy Driving BACKGROUND TO THE ISSUE Fatigue has costly effects on the safety, health, and quality that in 2015, over 72,000 police-reported crashes involved of life of the American public. Whether fatigue is caused drowsy drivers. These crashes led to 41,000 injuries and by sleep restriction due to a new baby waking every more than 800 deaths. However, there is broad consensus couple of hours, a late or long shift at work, hanging out across the traffic safety, sleep science, and public health late with friends, or a long and monotonous drive for communities that this is an underestimate of the impact of the holidays – the negative outcomes can be the same. drowsy driving. These include impaired cognition and performance, The broader community’s best estimate of drowsy-driving motor vehicle crashes, workplace accidents, and health crashes is that 7 percent of all crashes and 16.5 percent of consequences. Addressing these issues can be difficult fatal crashes involve a drowsy driver. This estimate suggests when our values frequently do not align with avoiding that approximately 6,000 people died in drowsy-driving- drowsy driving. In a 24/7 society, with an emphasis on related motor vehicle crashes across the United States work, longer commutes, and exponential advancement last year. This study performed by the AAA Foundation of technology, many people do not get the sleep they for Traffic Safety (Tefft, 2012) used a statistical multiple need.1 Effectively dealing with the drowsy-driving problem imputation process to estimate drowsy driving incidence requires fundamental changes to societal norms and in the NHTSA NASS Crashworthiness Data System (CDS). especially attitudes about drowsy driving. Some researchers feel this may still be an underestimate Drowsy-driving crashes can happen any time, but most and that there may be more than 8,000 deaths attributable frequently occur at night in the early pre-dawn hours or to drowsy driving each year. in the mid-afternoon. Age also plays a significant factor. While estimates differ on the exact incidence of drowsy Research conducted in 2012 by the AAA Foundation for driving, we can all agree it is a critical traffic safety Traffic Safety shows that crash-involved drivers 16 to 24 issue that leads to thousands of deaths each year and years old were nearly twice as likely to be drowsy at the causes an estimated $109 billion of societal harm.2 A time of the crash compared to drivers 40 to 59 years old. 2002 NHTSA-sponsored Gallup survey showed that 95 Drivers 24
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