2.1 Communications and outreach on fatigued driving
Fatigued or drowsy driving occurs because drivers don't get enough sleep. This apparently obvious statement is well documented. In NHTSA's telephone survey, 66 percent of the drivers who reported they had nodded off while driving had six or fewer hours of sleep the previous night (Royal, 2004, p. 46). Stutts et al. (1999) interviewed 467 crash-involved drowsy drivers (reported as "fatigued" or "asleep" by the investigating officer) and 529 other crash-involved drivers who were not drowsy. Half of the drowsy drivers had six or fewer hours of sleep the previous night compared to fewer than 10 percent of the other drivers. States and national organizations such as the National Sleep Foundation have conducted drowsy driving communications and outreach campaigns directed to the general public (NCHRP, under review, Strategy C1; NSF, 2004a). Campaign goals usually include:
NHTSA and NCSDR (NHTSA, 1997, p. viii) identified three groups that are over-involved in drowsy driving crashes: drivers in their teens and 20s, shift workers, and people suffering from sleep apnea or narcolepsy. The joint NHTSA-NCSDR Report to Congress on drowsy driving recommended that communications and outreach on drowsy driving be directed to these groups, especially to young drivers (NHTSA, 1999). This information can be delivered in several ways. Driver education programs can include information on both drowsy and distracted driving, and the new model curriculum developed by NHTSA and the American Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association (ADTSEA) includes both. See Chapter 4, Sections 3.1 and 3.2, for additional discussion of shift workers and medical conditions, respectively. Communications and outreach campaigns can be delivered in high schools, colleges, military training programs and bases, and other locations where there are many young drivers. NCHRP (under review, Strategy D2) provides examples. Many young drivers have part-time jobs, which place them at even higher risk for drowsy driving. See Chapter 4, Section 3.1, for discussion. Finally, information can be delivered through Web sites and other media with a youthful target audience. The ultimate goal of drowsy driving communications and outreach is to change driver behavior, but they face substantial obstacles. As discussed in other chapters, communications and outreach by themselves rarely change driving behavior (Chapter 1, Section 5.5; Chapter 2, Section 3.2; Chapter 3, Section 4.1; see also NCHRP, under review, Strategy C1). To have any chance of success, stand-alone campaigns must have careful planning, good target audience identification and research, good message development and placement, and substantial funding. An additional barrier is that drowsy driving is a byproduct of busy lifestyles that do not include enough sleep. The only truly effective method to prevent drowsy driving crashes is to get enough sleep (Nguen et al., 1998; NHTSA, 1997). Traffic safety messages urging enough sleep may be overwhelmed by the other demands on a driver's time that are responsible for insufficient sleep. Focus group discussions with young men and shift workers, two groups at high risk of drowsy driving, confirmed this conclusion (Nelson et al., 2001). Most shift workers and many young men understood well the risks caused by lack of sleep. Many had crashed or almost crashed after falling asleep at the wheel or had friends who had crashed. But neither their knowledge nor their crash experience changed their sleep habits. They sacrificed sleep for the demands of their work, families, and social lives. Campaigns directed to young drivers also must overcome the higher risk-taking behavior and overall immaturity of young drivers discussed in Chapter 6. No drowsy driving communications and outreach program has been evaluated (NCHRP, under review, Strategies C1 and D2). Use: Utah is the only State known to have conducted a drowsy driving campaign for the general public (see NCHRP, under review, Strategy C1). NCHRP (under review, Strategy D2) gives examples of college programs. Effectiveness: There are no studies of any campaign's effects on driver knowledge, attitudes, or behavior (NCHRP, under review, Strategies C1 and D2). Costs: A high-quality campaign will be expensive to develop, test, and implement. Time to implement: A high-quality campaign will require at least six months to plan, produce, and distribute. |
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