‘Fatigue’ among young male night-time car drivers: is there a risk-taking group?

Abstract The study focuses on fatigue among young male night-time drivers and the risk of falling asleep behind the wheel. It is based on data from 240 drivers of private cars stopped in roadside surveys between 00.00 and 06.00. Twenty-six of the drivers (10.8%) had experienced falling asleep behind the wheel. Eighteen of these drivers were warned by episodes of microsleep before the ‘driver asleep’ incidence, while eight drivers were without such a warning. Eighty-one other drivers had experienced episodes of microsleep in the past, while one driver had such an episode on the night of the survey. Episodes of driver asleep and/or microsleep in the past were equally distributed among morning and evening type drivers, while such episodes were significantly more common among drivers who declared themselves as ‘tired’ or ‘very tired’ on the night of the survey. The study confirms that driver asleep is a serious human accident factor in night-time traffic. It also suggests the presence of a risk-taking group of drivers aware of, and ready to accept, driving at a very low level of arousal.

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