FOR KATETUTOR

RESEARCH PAPER ON DRIVER SAFETY ON THE ROADS

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS

By

Michelle Turley

Introduction

In a recent survey published in The New York Times it showed that in year 2012 the number of accidents had slightly increased from the number reported in the previous year 2011. While some of the accidents were caused by natural causes, such as poor visibility due to snowing, most of them were actually driver instigated. Consequently, I came up with a hypothesis that sixty percent of accidents are caused by driver fatigue which is caused by a number of factors such as lack of enough sleep.

Pee- Reviewed journals on fatigue driving

A research was conducted by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, to establish the major cause of accidents on the American roads. The researchers used a complex data acquisition system where 100 car, to be used as specimens, were fitted with sensors, accelerometers, lane tracking software and an in-vehicle network sensor. Researchers therefore viewed 82 crashes 761 near crashes and8295 incidents where emergency breaking had to be applied to avoid breaking the road . From the research, cases of driver fatigue accounted 58% of the accidents reported. 98% of the drivers were slightly fatigued with 69% of them being severely fatigued. This article supports my hypotheses; it confirms that indeed fatigue is a major contributor of accidents in American roads. (Day or night, driving while tired a leading cause for accidents (2013) by Virginia Tech)

Monash University in Australia conducted a research to review the extent and nature of fatigue in car crashes reported in Australia. The researchers used a model of a proposed driver fatigue which in turn showed that driver fatigue occurs in three stages: Stage one is characterized by alertness, stage two fatigue stealthily creeps in a driver, and eventually in stage three, drivers consciousness decreased drastically and it’s in this stage that sleep eventually creeps in. However the methods used in this research may not best represent the actual case on the roads. This research shows how insidious fatigue is drivers; how it develops as well how it leads to accidents. (Fatigue and fatigue research: The Australian experience by Monash University)

A research conducted by researchers in the University of Minnesota in the USA, to investigate the effect of sleep deprivation on the performance of commercial drivers. The research spearheaded by Dr. John Bloomfield, recruited twenty CMV drivers and each took part in a 20hour experimental session. The researchers used a simulator truck at different times of the day .However this experiment showed very minimal relation between bad driving and fatigue. Mostly owing to the fact that the experiment was not carried in a real life situation. However this experiment would be essentials in my paper since it provides another perspective and in a way disagrees with my hypothesis. In my research I’ll be trying to evaluate this anomaly. (Fatigue and sleep deprivation by University of Minnesota).