Driver fatigue is an important causal factor in many highway crashes—and is of particular concern in the trucking industry where many operators undertake long haul drives with limited amounts of sleep. Previous studies suggest that fatigue can affect steering performance and speed control.
In real world driving studies and in driving simulator studies, steering performance has been found to gradually worsen with time.
With regard to speed the picture has been less clear—in a simulation study, drivers were found to increase their speed the longer they drove, although a survey of military truck drivers suggests that when the drivers are fatigued, some drive slower, and others have difficulty estimating their speed correctly.
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