* British Columbia - Lack of sleep involved in 80% of highway deaths, says expert
-- The days of pulling all-nighters to earn bragging rights should be a thing of the past, says a sleep expert. Adding, some 80% of highway collision fatalities involve driver fatigue, warns Mike Harnett from Six Safety Systems. Worst of all, some 40% of those fatigued drivers have been awake for more than 17 hours prior to the crash... “Only sleep can cure fatigue. You can’t Tim Horton it away; you can’t Starbuck it away; and you can’t Red Bull it away. You can’t mask it,” said Harnett... Harnett, whose title is vice-president of human factors, says 17 hours of wakefulness equates to a blood alcohol content level of .05%. Up to 24 hours of wakefulness equates to a blood alcohol content level of .10%, which is considered to be impaired... “Sleep is the most important thing in your life, whether you realize it or not,” says Harnett. “Fatigue accumulates. It builds and builds and builds. We can’t just will it away.” ... Thanks mostly to the invention of electric light, humans have actually reduced average sleep durations from nine hours to less than seven, as people no longer depend on the sun to guide the circadian rhythms of the body. The body has over 700 rhythms. Humans have a built-in body clock that responds to both light and darkness. It tells us when to eat, sleep, rest and be active... “We are not nocturnal. We are not cats, rats or bats,” says Harnett, who notes that most traffic collision occur just after a typical work day ends, when people’s bodies start to wind down for the evening... Napping can boost alertness for hours, suggests the expert...
(Photo: Mike Harnett talks sleep at Truxpo 2016) -- Abbotsford, BC, CAN - Today's Trucking, by David Nesseth - May 25, 2016Labels: truckers' fatigue
![[Valid Atom 1.0]](valid-atom.png "Validate my Atom 1.0 feed")
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home