28 February 2011
From: Brake, the road safety charity
Tel: 01484 559909 Out of hours: 07976 069159 E-mail
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Ten years on from the tragic Selby rail crash, which killed 10 people, there is still widespread complacency and confusion amongst drivers about the effects of fatigue on driving. Brake believes that, sadly, the lessons of Selby have been forgotten.
In 2010, a Brake and Direct Line survey [1] found that nearly three-quarters of drivers (74%) admit driving tired in the past 12 months – with almost one in 10 (9%) saying they did so at least once a week. This is a huge increase from six years ago, when 46% of drivers owned up to getting behind the wheel while tired [2].
An estimated one in five fatal crashes on trunk roads are caused by tired drivers [3] – although the real figure could be higher, because it can be difficult to prove when a crash was caused by a driver falling asleep. They tend to be high-speed crashes, because drivers do not brake before crashing, so the risk of death or serious injury is greater [4].
If drivers do feel tired behind the wheel, they are advised to pull over somewhere safe as soon as possible, drink caffeine, and then take a short power nap [5] – or find somewhere to stay overnight and get a good night’s sleep. All other methods of staying awake and alert at the wheel are unproven.
Julie Townsend, Brake’s campaigns director, said: “The Selby rail crash was a horrifying example of why driving tired is a risk that no one should take. It is vital to act on these lessons. Unfortunately, 10 years after Selby, a large proportion of drivers are driving tired and the UK still lacks the basic infrastructure, such as adequate safety barriers and sufficient rest areas, to prevent another disaster like Selby happening again.”
The Selby disaster happened on 28 February 2001 after Gary Hart fell asleep at the wheel and careered off the M62, down an embankment and on to the east coast mainline. Hart's stranded Land Rover was hit by an express train travelling at 117mph. Some carriages derailed, but most remained upright. Then the express train bounced off a set of points and into the path of a freight train. All nine carriages of the express derailed.
Read Brake’s factsheet on driver tiredness and the need for safety barriers over railway bridges
Read Brake’s factsheet on motorway crash barriers
DRIVER ADVICE
- Get plenty of sleep before a journey, plan your journey to include time for adequate rest and don’t set out if you are already tired.
- Take rest breaks at least every two hours for a minimum of fifteen minutes.
- If you feel tired when you are driving, listen to the warning signs and stop for a break somewhere safe as soon as you can. Sleep ensues faster than you think – trying to fight off sleep by opening the window or listening to the radio puts you at risk of ‘microsleeps’, when you nod off for two to 30 seconds without remembering it. Microsleeps can be fatal: at 70mph a driver travels 200m in six seconds. However, fatigue can even affect performance long before microsleeps occur, as well as in-between microsleeps [6].
- If you start to feel sleepy while driving:
- Stop for a 15 minute break somewhere safe as soon as possible.
- If you drink caffeine, drink two cups of coffee or a high-caffeine drink, such as an energy drink, then take a 10-15 minute rest or snooze.
- By the time you wake up any caffeine will have kicked in and you may feel alert enough to continue your journey. If you still feel tired, or you still have a long way to go, you should stay put and try to find somewhere to get a good night’s sleep.
- Remember caffeine is a temporary drug and its effects do not last long. Sleep is the only long-term cure to tiredness.
ACTION FROM THE GOVERNMENT
Brake is calling on the Government to:
- Run more targeted education campaigns warning of the dangers of driving tired, raising awareness about the importance of not embarking on a journey while tired, and steps to take if you start to feel drowsy at the wheel.
- Make traffic policing a national policing priority, and ensure there are more patrols to spot and stop weaving vehicles driven by tired drivers.
- Introduce regular testing of drivers, particularly people who drive for work, for sleep apnoea, a medical condition that makes falling asleep at the wheel much more likely.
- Introduce better and longer safety barriers to minimise the consequences of crashes caused by tired drivers on motorway and trunk roads.
- Conduct an audit of rest areas on motorways and trunk roads, to ensure they provide adequate provision for our road network, enabling drivers to always find somewhere to stop and rest.
- Extend rules controlling hours that can be driven legally by large vehicle drivers to fleet drivers in vans and cars, and encourage companies to use trains more instead of cars for long distance journeys.
About Brake
Brake is an independent national road safety charity. Brake exists to stop the six deaths and 70 serious injuries that happen on UK roads every day and to care for families bereaved and seriously injured in road crashes. Brake produces educational road safety literature, runs community training programmes and runs events including Road Safety Week (21-27 November 2011). Brake’s Fleet Safety Forum provides up-to-date fleet safety resources to fleet managers and runs a year-round programme of events. Brake’s support division cares for road crash victims through a helpline and other services.
[1] Direct Line report on safe driving 2009 – 2011 PART TWO: Fit to drive?, Brake and Direct Line, 2010
[2] Green Flag report on safe driving 2003 – 2004 PART ONE: Fit to drive? Brake and Green Flag, 2003
[3] Fatigue and Road Safety: A Critical Analysis of Recent Evidence, Department for Transport, 2011
[4] Department for Transport, www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk
[5] Caffeine combined with a short nap effectively counteracts driver sleepiness, Loughborough University Sleep Research Centre, 1997
[6] Fatigue and Road Safety: A Critical Analysis of Recent Evidence, Department for Transport, 2011
