RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

October 21, 2004
RoSPA WARNING ON FATIGUE THREAT TO COMPANY DRIVERS

A new report on the dangers of driving while tired was a warning to all fleet managers of the need to tackle fatigue in their policies on managing occupational road risk, RoSPA said today.

The Department for Transport revealed this week that research on selected motorways and trunk roads showed that: 17 per cent of road crashes resulting in injury or death were sleep related; a quarter of all road crashes that caused death or serious injury were sleep related; 67 per cent of sleep-related crashes were caused by car drivers and 32 per cent were caused by drivers of good vehicles; while road crashes occur mostly on Fridays, these sleep-related crashes occurred least on Fridays and mostly on Mondays.

Charles Davis, RoSPA Head of Driver and Fleet Solutions, said: “We are not surprised by these figures, but they are still very disturbing. They should make fleet managers look very closely at the way they are dealing with the potential for their drivers being over-tired at the wheel.

“If 67 per cent of sleep-related crashes are caused by car drivers, it is likely that a high proportion of them are on the road for work purposes. We know that between a third and a quarter of all deaths on Britain’s roads are in some way work related.

“The research emphasises the need for employers to plan journeys correctly, set realistic schedules, look at alternative methods of transport, allow overnight stops and consider if some journeys are really necessary.

“The fact that most of this type of crash happens on a Monday is likely to be news to many managers, and they need to be considering if they have people driving for them who are too tired after the weekend. “

Help on the subject is available through RoSPA’s courses on Managing Occupational Road Risk, Behavioural Aspects of Driving and Drink/Drug Driving Awareness.

RoSPA has also published a Driving for Work Safe Journey Planner which is available at http://www.rospa.com/pdfs/road/worksafejourney.pdf. For more information see also http://www.rospa.com/drivertraining/