TY - JOUR
T1 - Chasing the silver bullet
T2 - Measuring driver fatigue using simple and complex tasks
AU - Baulk, S. D.
AU - Biggs, S. N.
AU - Reid, K. J.
AU - van den Heuvel, C. J.
AU - Dawson, D.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). The authors wish to thank Alison Bagnall, Ryan Higgins, James Swift, Sophie Walenczykiewicz and Dayna Griffin for help with recruitment and data collection. We thank Michael Gratton of Quuxo Software for software programming, and Martin York for assistance with the YDS. We would also like to thank Jill Dorrian and Katie Kandelaars for help with data analysis, and Sally Ferguson for reading the manuscript.
PY - 2008/1
Y1 - 2008/1
N2 - Driver fatigue remains a significant cause of motor-vehicle accidents worldwide. New technologies are increasingly utilised to improve road safety, but there are no effective on-road measures for fatigue. While simulated driving tasks are sensitive, and simple performance tasks have been used in industrial fatigue management systems (FMS) to quantify risk, little is known about the relationship between such measures. Establishing a simple, on-road measure of fatigue, as a fitness-to-drive tool, is an important issue for road safety and accident prevention, particularly as many fatigue related accidents are preventable. This study aimed to measure fatigue-related performance decrements using a simple task (reaction time - RT) and a complex task (driving simulation), and to determine the potential for a link between such measures, thus improving FMS success. Fifteen volunteer participants (7 m, 8 f) aged 22-56 years (mean 33.6 years), underwent 26 h of supervised wakefulness before an 8 h recovery sleep opportunity. Participants were tested using a 30-min interactive driving simulation test, bracketed by a 10-min psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) at 4, 8, 18 and 24 h of wakefulness, and following recovery sleep. Extended wakefulness caused significant decrements in PVT and driving performance. Although these measures are clearly linked, our analyses suggest that driving simulation cannot be replaced by a simple PVT. Further research is needed to closely examine links between performance measures, and to facilitate accurate management of fitness to drive, which requires more complex assessments of performance than RT alone.
AB - Driver fatigue remains a significant cause of motor-vehicle accidents worldwide. New technologies are increasingly utilised to improve road safety, but there are no effective on-road measures for fatigue. While simulated driving tasks are sensitive, and simple performance tasks have been used in industrial fatigue management systems (FMS) to quantify risk, little is known about the relationship between such measures. Establishing a simple, on-road measure of fatigue, as a fitness-to-drive tool, is an important issue for road safety and accident prevention, particularly as many fatigue related accidents are preventable. This study aimed to measure fatigue-related performance decrements using a simple task (reaction time - RT) and a complex task (driving simulation), and to determine the potential for a link between such measures, thus improving FMS success. Fifteen volunteer participants (7 m, 8 f) aged 22-56 years (mean 33.6 years), underwent 26 h of supervised wakefulness before an 8 h recovery sleep opportunity. Participants were tested using a 30-min interactive driving simulation test, bracketed by a 10-min psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) at 4, 8, 18 and 24 h of wakefulness, and following recovery sleep. Extended wakefulness caused significant decrements in PVT and driving performance. Although these measures are clearly linked, our analyses suggest that driving simulation cannot be replaced by a simple PVT. Further research is needed to closely examine links between performance measures, and to facilitate accurate management of fitness to drive, which requires more complex assessments of performance than RT alone.
KW - Driving
KW - Fatigue management
KW - Fitness to drive
KW - Performance
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=38349002569&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.aap.2007.07.008
DO - 10.1016/j.aap.2007.07.008
M3 - Article
C2 - 18215574
AN - SCOPUS:38349002569
SN - 0001-4575
VL - 40
SP - 396
EP - 402
JO - Accident Analysis and Prevention
JF - Accident Analysis and Prevention
IS - 1
ER -
