Sleepless America: The Deadly Cost of Fatigue in Transportation

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Sleepless America: The Deadly Cost of Fatigue in Transportation

March 7, 2013 by ntsbgov
By Mark Rosekind


When you step onto a bus, airplane, or train there is a sacred trust that the operators have taken all reasonable measures to ensure you arrive safely at your destination, every time. When you turn the ignition on in your own vehicle, you join this sacred trust, to ensure that you, your passengers, and those around you will arrive safely at your destinations, every time. Next week, America prepares to turn its clocks ahead and collectively as a nation we each lose an hour of sleep. In one night, this will generate a 300 million-hour national sleep debt and in the few days it takes our bodies to adjust, our nation will accumulate over a billion hours of lost sleep. In transportation, this lost sleep kills, injures, and costs billions of dollars.

National Sleep Awareness Week, March 3 through 10, highlights the tragedies that result from sleep loss and operating vehicles while fatigued. Just three years ago 10 people died when a truck plowed into seven cars and caused a massive pile-up on Interstate 44 near Miami, Oklahoma. It was the worst highway accident in the state’s history. The driver suffered from a deadly combination of an altered work schedule, acute sleep loss, and sleep apnea. He never even touched the brakes.

The hour we lose when clocks are set forward every spring offers our already sleep-deprived country a glimpse into the dangers of operating vehicles while fatigued. Perhaps the most basic requirement for safely operating any vehicle is to be awake, and though necessary, just being awake is not sufficient. Safe travel requires every vehicle operator to have obtained optimal sleep and be wide-awake and maximally alert, every time. There is a 17 percent increase in crashes on our roadways on the Monday following the time change. But fatigue safety risks are a life-threatening concern far beyond this annual clock change. Every year, an estimated one million roadway crashes and near-misses are likely fatigue-related, with thousands of people losing their lives and being injured. Fatigue-related tragedies are played out across every hour of the day throughout our nation’s transportation system. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://safetycompass.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/sleepless-america-the-deadly-cost-of-fatigue-in-transportation/