Fatigue
About This Project
Each year, drivers whose concentration, judgement and reaction times are clouded by tiredness, are killed on New Zealand roads. Driver fatigue can seriously impair judgment and can affect anyone, even those that drive for a living. It is particularly dangerous because one of the symptoms of fatigue is a decreased ability to judge our own level of tiredness.
Globally, it is estimated that fatigue driving is responsible for 20% of all road traffic fatalities. Fatigue is a general term commonly used to describe the experience of being sleepy, tired or exhausted.
When people are tired they can make mistakes and put themselves and others at risk.
Fatigue Projects
Mobile Shift workers Fatigue Stops
Roadsafe Taranaki delivers fatigue stops at strategic sites on the state highway network over summer months targeting shift workers and agricultural contractors who start work in the early morning and finish late at night.
Weekend holiday fatigue stops
Public holidays that coincide with a weekend encourage families to go away for a jam-packed weekend and head home to get some much needed sleep. Having a fatigue stop at the entrance to Taranaki with free food and drinks can help reduce the likelihood of a fatigue related crash.
Often the driver is the only person awake in the car so front seat passengers are encouraged to stay alert and be another set of eyes. Drivers are told to take regular breaks and don’t try and push through the tiredness.
Shift workers Booklet
This booklet is a free resource that contains tips for getting to and from work safely, particularly around signs of fatigue, how to create a good environment so quality sleep is achieved and how family can support a shift worker when coming home from shift.
For more information please email us roadsafetaranaki@stdc.govt.nz
What causes Fatigue?
Not enough quality sleep is the main reason someone will suffer fatigue. This can be either short term (less than five hours sleep in the last 24 hours) or long term lack of sleep (less than 12 hours sleep in the last 48 hours or less than 50 hours in the week prior).