Highway driving safety the day after using sleep medication: the direction of lapses and excursions out-of-lane in drowsy drivers

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-1-2018

Publication Title

Journal of sleep research

Abstract

The primary outcome measure of the on-road driving test is the Standard Deviation of Lateral Position. However, other outcome measures, such as lapses and excursions out-of-lane, also need to be considered as they may be related to crash risk. The aim of this study was to determine the direction of lapses and excursions out-of-lane (i.e. towards/into the adjacent traffic lane or towards/into the road shoulder). In total, data from 240 driving tests were re-analysed, and 628 lapses and 401 excursions out-of-lane were identified. The analyses revealed that lapses were made equally frequently over left (49.4%) and over right (43.3%). In contrast, excursions out-of-lane were almost exclusively directed over right into the (safer) road shoulder (97.3%). These findings suggest that drivers are unaware of having lapses, whereas excursions out-of-lane are events where the driver is aware of loss of vehicle control.

Medical Subject Headings

Accidents; Traffic/prevention & control/psychology; Acetamides/adverse effects; Adult; Aged; Automobile Driving/psychology; Female; Humans; Hypnotics and Sedatives/adverse effects; Male; Middle Aged; Pyrimidines/adverse effects; Sleep/drug effects/physiology; Sleep Aids; Pharmaceutical/adverse effects; Sleepiness; Wakefulness/drug effects/physiology; Young Adult; Zolpidem/adverse effects; direction; driving; excursions out-of-lane; lapses

PubMed ID

29063632

Volume

27

Issue

3

First Page

12622

Last Page

12622

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