Fatigue, alcohol, and serious road crashes in France: factorial study of national data

Editorial by Feyer France has a high rate of road traffic crashes.1 Although driver fatigue may be an important factor,2–4 it has not been investigated in France, and no comparisons have been made with alcohol related crashes.5 We investigated the role of fatigue in serious road crashes using the French national database.1 We obtained data from the French Ministry of Transport on all road crashes during 1994–8 (640 670) in which at least one person was severely injured (confirmed by paramedics) or died. Crashes were attended by police officers, who completed a standard ministry questionnaire that covered time of incident, location, road and weather conditions, vehicles involved, mechanical defects, health of driver, and alcohol consumption as well as giving summaries of interviews and probable causes. As crashes related to fatigue can be difficult …