TOO LONG AT WHEEL

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20105, 11 May 1935, Page 10

TOO LONG AT WHEEL

FATIGUE AND DROWSINESS Following a nation-wide study of the part played by exhaustion and drowsiness in traffic accidents, the National Safety Council of the United States of America has published its findings in a 48-page report entitled “Too Long at the Wheel.” The council’s conclusions on the subject are summarised as follows: Many motor vehicle accidents occur because drivers fall asleep or become so tired that they cannot drive safely. Such accidents are much more liable to cause death (particularly of the driver) and serious injury or damage than the general run of motor vehicle accidents.

“Fatigued” or “asleep” accidents are more likely to occur to truck drivers than to those of private passenger cars. Drowsiness is often attributed to and complicated by other factors especially alcohol and carbon monoxide.

Driving excessively long hours is a common practice on American highways; but starting trips after considerable periods of wakefulness (occasioned by work or even by waiting) is

equally Important in producing dangerous fatigue. Although 42 States and the district of Columbia have laws or regulations to limit the hours of duty for certain classes of drivers, there are only a few places where anything is done to enforce such rules, and in many States there is no attempt whatever at enforcement. Violations of these rules are most common and serious in long-haul, forhire trucking, particularly among drivers who own their own vehicles; although flagrant cases often occur in other types of trucking and are not uncommon in some kinds of bus operations. The council estimates that there are about 20,000 “asleep” driver accidents every year with a fatality rate many times greater than that for all traffic accidents taken together.