Details:

Creators:
Rizzo, Matthew ; Tippin, Jon ; Aksan, Nazan
Rizzo, Matthew ; Tippin, Jon ; Aksan, Nazan Less -
Corporate Creators:
University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics. Dept. of Neurology
Corporate Contributors:
United States. Federal Highway Administration
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Accident Prone Drivers Attention Fatigue (Physiological Condition) Field Tests Human Factors In Accidents Memory Sleep Deprivation Traffic Accidents
Publication/ Report Number:
SPR 90-00-SLDR-010
Resource Type:
Tech Report
Geographical Coverage:
United States
Corporate Publisher:
Iowa. Dept. of Transportation
NTL Classification:
NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Accidents;NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Human Factors;
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.


Format:
PDF
Collection(s):
US Transportation Collection
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:24f7d3bcecf7807f70fe3310d44ae2b741dabca3e2d2211663a6895638c027d2
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/26131/dot_26131_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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