Study reveals sleep-related mishaps on the rise in Pakistan. PHOTO: FILE
PESHAWAR:
Every day 3,200 human lives are lost in road accidents across the world. According to Engineer Khizar Azam, the leading cause of these accidents is driver fatigue.
Azam, who is an assistant professor at the University of Engineering and Technology’s (UET) Mechanical Engineering Department, presented these facts in his PhD thesis titled ‘Driver Fatigue Prediction Model’.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Azam said driver fatigue is one of the leading causes of road accidents in Pakistan. “A large number of human lives are lost due to traffic accidents in the country,” he maintained, adding road mishaps would be the third leading cause of death and disability by 2020 according to a Global Burden of Disease study.
“While this trend is decreasing in developed countries, developing countries like Pakistan are showing alarming signs of increased accidents due to tiredness,” explained Azam. According to the PhD scholar, Pakistan is ranked fifth in the world in this respect.
According to the National Highway and Motorway Police, tired drivers causing accidents have increased by up to 34.8% between 2003 and 2009. Moreover, these figures do no include several cases that went unreported.
Azam said his study’s objective was to identify the level of driver fatigue experienced by Pakistani long-haul drivers, and devise a fatigue prediction model. He conducted a survey on 400 drivers in Peshawar. The findings revealed certain behavioural and cultural issues associated to driver fatigue as major contributing factors to road accidents.
Azam’s model predicts more fatigue in drivers who sleep less hours per night, old drivers, marijuana users, drivers who drive for more than 40 hours a week, drivers who were tired in the day and illiterate drivers. Conversely, the predicted level of tiredness is less for smokers and religiously-inclined drivers. The model has been tested and validated, according to Azam.
The researcher suggested drivers should get a good night’s sleep before starting a journey and also advised them to take breaks after 2 to 3 hours of continuous driving. “Consuming a cup of tea is a short-term countermeasure against fatigue,” warned Azam. “After a while, drivers are overpowered by sleep so the best strategy is to take a nap.”
Azam added transportation safety was neglected in the country, and emphasised the number of accidents could be greatly reduced if their route cause was eliminated.
The study, which Azam claims is the first of its kind in Asia, makes a number of policy recommendations to control the increasing trend in road mishaps in Pakistan. These include setting up a national road safety agency through the Parliament Act in order to devise policies, standards and guidelines. Other policy recommendations include constructing more rest areas on motorways, delimiting maximum age limits for drivers, and identifying driver fatigue crash zones on national roads.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2013.
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Appreciating efforts of Dr.Azam but the person who highlighted the finding to the masses is more appreciating but from the date when he lifted us, we are unable to read tribune and investigative stories and columns of him.