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Final report on the portable computerized assessments of sleepy drivers in operational environments.
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2011-06-01
[PDF-76.54 KB]
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NTL Classification:NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Accidents;NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Human Factors;
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Abstract:Excessive daytime sleepiness underpins a large number of the reported motor vehicle crashes. Fair and accurate field
measures are needed to identify at-risk drivers who have been identified as potentially driving in a sleep deprived state on
the basis of erratic driving behavior. The purpose of this research study was to evaluate a set of cognitive tests that can
assist Motor Vehicle Enforcement Officers on duty in identifying drivers who may be engaged in sleep impaired driving.
Currently no gold standard test exists to judge sleepiness in the field. Previous research has shown that Psychomotor
Vigilance Task (PVT) is sensitive to sleep deprivation. The first goal of the current study was to evaluate whether
computerized tests of attention and memory, more brief than PVT, would be as sensitive to sleepiness effects. The second
goal of the study was to evaluate whether objective and subjective indices of acute and cumulative sleepiness predicted
cognitive performance. Findings showed that sleepiness effects were detected in three out of six tasks. Furthermore, PVT
was the only task that showed a consistent slowing of both ‘best’, i.e. minimum, and ‘typical’ responses, median RT due to
sleepiness. However, PVT failed to show significant associations with objective measures of sleep deprivation (number of
hours awake). The findings indicate that sleepiness tests in the field have significant limitations. The findings clearly
show that it will not be possible to set absolute performance thresholds to identify sleep-impaired drivers based on
cognitive performance on any test. Cooperation with industry to adjust work and rest cycles, and incentives to comply
with those regulations will be critical components of a broad policy to prevent sleepy truck drivers from getting on the
road.
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