Energy Drinks, Driver Alertness/ Tiredness and Safe Driving

Too many accidents are caused by tired drivers falling asleep at the steering wheel. They either cause the accidents or are unable to avoid accidents which alert drivers would have been able to avoid. Tired driving is sometimes referred to as the silent assassin because sleepiness behind the wheel really kills!

The topic of tired driving is often referred to in discussions on driver tiredness, drowsiness, driver fatigue etc. This has been recognized by road safety experts worldwide as a major threat to road safety – but too often is not given enough attention by drivers and fleet operators.

Tired drivers cause thousands of deaths and serious injuries every year, yet even professional drivers (and their bosses) don’t always acknowledge the danger and pay enough attention to measures of avoidance.

In this section we would like to consider safety advice and recommendations – and pay special attention to energy drinks as an aid to driver alertness. We will also reflect on caffeinated drinks which have been the topic of some criticism.

Both tired driving and drunk driving are dangerous but in different ways. An important difference is however that there are severe penalties for driving with small amounts of alcohol in your bloodstream, but almost no penalties for driving while excessively tired. Perhaps it is time that road users and road safety authorities pay closer attention to driver fatigue as well!

Statistical Information on Driver Tiredness and Road Accidents

Before focusing on the merits of energy drinks and road safety we need to consider a few international facts on driver tiredness. Information from various Sleep Institutes/ Sleep Centres nationally provides invaluable information on driver tiredness.

In-depth research starting in the early 1990s has been correlated with police studies of motorway accidents. Various projects have focused on sleepiness and sleep patterns in factories and amongst ship and shift workers and more importantly on the driving ability of drivers. During some of this research drivers have been monitored by electrodes while they provided responses to how tired they are on a scale of one to 10.