Drowsy drivers are a bigger danger than you think

If you're a motorist, chances are one of these little scenarios will sound familiar.

You're on virtual auto pilot on your daily commute home, hardly aware of the last few kilometres you drove. Or you've zoned out and don't notice the vehicle in front of you has slowed, forcing you to slam on your brakes.

Or maybe you're on a long, tedious highway drive, willing your eyelids to stay up but unwilling to pull over because you want to make more time, not noticing how you're drifting in and out of your lane.

While impaired driving and, more recently, distracted driving get most of the headlines as road-safety scourges, driver fatigue is a more insidious threat and probably much more common.

It was brought into stark relief this week when a Quebec coroner compared drowsy driving to driving under the influence in an inquest into a 2011 collision where a van carrying farm workers home hit a school bus full of children, killing five in the van.

[ Related: Quebec coroner compares driving drowsy to driving drunk ]

Coroner Quoc-Bao Do concluded the van driver's fatigue or sleepiness caused the accident and recommended the public be made more aware of the problem.

We generally only hear about this problem when there is a spectacular accident, like the New York tour bus crash that killed 15 people in 2011.

The New York Times reported an investigation revealed the driver had only napped briefly in the three days before running the speeding bus off the road, where it flipped on its side and hit a metal highway sign staunchion, peeling off the roof.

Driver fatigue has also been fingered in a New Jersey highway crash that seriously injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed a companion in his van.

The Star-Ledger reported the driver of the Walmart tractor-trailer that collided with Morgan's vehicle had not slept for 24 hours and apparently none of the truck's high-tech crash-avoidance systems, including an automatic-braking system, made much of a difference.

The problem is that driver fatigue is so widespread it's hard for accident investigators to single out in many crashes, says Robert Tremblay, the Insurance Bureau of Canada's director of road-safety research.

“The only time driver fatigue is listed is when you have clear evidence that the driver fell asleep at the wheel," Tremblay told Yahoo Canada News.

"You need a lot of clues to get to that; the time of day that it happened, the fact there were no braking marks. There’s a number of factors police can use to determine whether or not someone who fell asleep at the wheel. But you can be affected by fatigue without necessarily falling asleep straight out.”

[ Related: Crash involving Tracy Morgan adds fuel to debate over tired truckers ]

But driver fatigue is thought play a role in up to 24 per cent of all collisions in Canada, Tremblay said.

It ranks well below the usual suspects, speed, alcohol or drug impairment and distracted driving, as a primary cause of fatal crashes if only because the evidence is so hard to find.

In British Columbia, for instance, fatigue was a factor in an average 540 collisions and 15 fatalities from 2008 through 2012, according to data gathered by the Insurance Corp. of B.C. (ICBC). That compares with an average 115 speed-related deaths, 95 impaired-driving and 91 distracted-driving fatalities.

“The challenge with fatigue is it’s a tough one to quantify," said John Dickinson, director of road safety for the public auto insurer.

Fatigue is often the suspected culprit among professionals such as long-haul truckers and bus drivers, he said, but only because they're on the road more. While a minority might push the envelope, they're no more of a threat than the average motorist.

“If you were to look by million kilometres driven, professional drivers are far less involved in fatigue-related collisions than the others," Tremblay said.

There seems to be a disconnect between police and traffic-safety experts, who consider driver fatigue a serious problem, and the driving public.

A 2009 report by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation done as a guidebook for Ontario police found that while 96 per cent of officers it surveyed considered fatigue a serious problem, only about 60 per cent of Ontario drivers agreed. Roughly the same percentage admitted driving while fatigued and 14.5 per cent revealed they'd fallen asleep or nodded off while driving at least once in the past year.

Fatigue also comes in many guises. Shift workers, whose natural sleep rhythms are regularly disrupted, are particularly vulnerable, as are drivers who simply tire from long stretches behind the wheel.

Sleep disorders such as sleep apnea or narcolepsy can impair driver attention. Then you've got chronically sleep-deprived new parents and those taking medications whose side effects include drowsiness.

This being the middle of summer-holiday driving season, the experts also point to vacationers who overdo their driving stints. And simply driving past midnight apparently increases vulnerability to fatigue or drowsiness.

"Driving late at night is a recipe for disaster," said Tremblay.

While most of us don't appear to treat the problem as seriously as impaired driving, Tremblay said research shows it can be just as dangerous. He pointed to one study that tested drivers who'd been kept awake for 28 hours that found levels of impairment equivalent of up to 0.1 per cent blood-alcohol concentration.

Another study done in France found sleep-deprived and fatigued drivers had significantly poorer reaction times.

[ Related: Teen texting and driving remains rampant despite stiff fines, campaigns ]

Tremblay and Dickinson say more can be done to reduce the fatigue risk.

ICBC has been funding installation of rumble strips that warn dozy drivers they've strayed out of their lane, which Tremblay said have been effective at reducing fatigue-related crash injuries by 21 per cent.

Governments also could build more secure highway rest areas, he said.

“If you feel that you’re tired, you must stop at a safe place.” said Tremblay.

Automakers, too, are installing more safety systems that can help warn drivers or mitigate potential crashes, such as lane-departure alarms and automatic braking systems that warn drivers if they're closing too fast on the vehicle ahead and even apply the brakes.

“Technology can be extremely effective in helping with something like this," said Dickinson.

Many of these systems are only available on higher-end vehicles but have started to trickle down to more affordable rides. But they're only useful if the drivers heed the warnings, Tremblay warned.

“Technology can help, no doubt, but it’s not a panacea," he said.

In the end, it's up to motorists to take the warning signs of fatigue seriously, regardless of the gadgets on their vehicles.

Some of the tips offered by the experts include planning long drives in advance to include regular rest stops, not starting a vacation drive at the end of a working day followed by frantic packing and sharing the driving chores if you're not travelling alone.

Be aware of the physical symptoms of fatigue; speed creeping up, lane wandering, persistent yawning, zoning out so you can't remember driving the last stretch of road.

Tricks to stave off drowsiness such as drinking lots of coffee, playing loud music and opening a window don't really work, said Tremblay.

“The danger with coffee is the fact that when the effect wears off you will doze off faster," he said.

It's better to sip water to stay hydrated, adds Dickinson, though the best solution is to pull over and take some downtime.

"Even a 20-minute nap will help you tremendously and get you home safely.” said Tremblay.

“The biggest tragedy here is that driving while fatigued is very preventable," said Dickinson. "If you’re intentionally stretching the limits of your rest, you’re really pushing it on the road.”