Date PostedFebruary 7, 2013

Increase in Truck Crashes Could be Fatigue as well as Mining Boom

CausesDriverFatigueHeavy vehicle truck accidents are on the increase in areas that are also seeing a boom in mining activity.

Initially it was thought that the increase in heavy vehicle accidents of roads like the Bruce Highway was solely to a dramatic increase in the amount of traffic that is using the road.

However there are some that say the Bruce Highway has been in an unacceptable state for a while and a new report shows that while increased traffic would be one of the causes of the rise in heavy vehicle accidents but it is not the only one.

In fact according to a http://www.abc.net.au/ report a new report also points to fatigue that is ongoing rather than only present at the end of a long day or week, read about it here:

The new NTARC report implicates other causes for the high rate of truck accidents on the Bruce beyond the poor state of the road.

A popular conception is that heavy vehicle crashes occur when truck drivers are pushing the limits of fatigue, especially at the end of long days.

But Mr Driscoll believes many drivers are fatigued when they start.

“Seventy per cent of incidents are happening on outbound journeys and, in cases where they’re on an outbound journey, within the first 250 kilometres,” he said.

Mr Driscoll’s research initially involved looking at driver logbooks to assess how over-work affected fatigue and crashes, but he soon realised factors outside of work were a major issue.

Drivers coming back from weekend breaks were often just as fatigued as those coming off a week on the road.

“They haven’t worked since Friday or Friday night, but they’re tired,” he said. “How do you identify that?”

National Transport Insurance has now started educating the businesses and fleets it insures about the benefits of regular fitness checks in addition to responsible rostering.

“We can sit in an office and if we are not feeling all that great on a Monday, because we have had a fairly busy weekend, we can still go to work,” Mr Driscoll said.

“These guys have got to manage even their time off so when they’re back in their truck on Sunday night or the early hours of Monday they’re fit and ready to go.”

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-03/truck-crashes-increase/4497464

Managing time off is something that we all struggle with at times because there never seems to be enough of it. We want to spend time with family and friends and do chores around the house and before you know it is time to go back to work again.

If we are a little weary in front of our computer screen on a Monday morning there are very few risks but it is starting to look like difficulty managing off hours may actually be fatal for people like heavy vehicle drivers.

Peter Cutforth is a Director at Urban E-Learning, a global elearning and web strategy firm based in George St Brisbane. Peter's interests extend to training, safety and compliance, online marketing, and Mobile Apps.

Posted in Blog Tagged with: , , ,