Articles relating to Motoring

On the Motorway

Driver tiredness

If you Have an Accident

•  Call for help on an emergency phone (or mobile if you already have a contact who can assist you)

•  If you are a woman alone make sure you inform the contact of this fact

•  Return to the car, but stay on the verge/bank. Lock all doors except the passenger door nearest to you

•  Get back in and lock the door if someone pulls up. Remember that you should only stop on the hard shoulder in an emergency. If you are lost it is safer to make your way to the nearest service station, roadside restaurant or town and establish your bearings there.

•  Do not accept help from passersby . If someone approaches get into the car, lock the doors and speak through a slightly open window.

Having an accident can obviously be traumatic and we want to try to help with some of the practical things you will need to do. If you are involved in an accident on the road, you need to take the following steps to help yourself so that you do not unintentionally break the law.

If you are the driver and one or more of the following has happened:

• A person, other than yourself, is injured
• Damage is caused to another vehicle or to someone else's property
• An animal has been killed or injured, except in your own vehicle or trailer (an 'animal' is defined as 'any horse, cattle, sheep, pig, goat or dog')

You must :

• Stop and stay at the scene for a reasonable time;
• Give your vehicle registration number, your name and address, and that of the vehicle owner (if different), to anyone with reasonable grounds for asking for those details;
• If you do not exchange those details at the scene, you must report the accident at a police station or to a police officer as soon as you can and in any case within 24 hours.

Where another person involved is injured, and then you must also:

• Produce your certificate of insurance if anyone at the scene has reasonable grounds to see it. If you do not, you must report the accident at a police station or to a police officer as soon as you can. This must be within 24 hours.
• If you don't have your certificate of insurance at the scene of the accident, you can take it to a police station local to you when you report the incident. You must do this within seven days of the accident. Reporting the accident to the police by telephone is not enough and you can't ask someone else to report it for you.
• You must do these things not only when you are directly involved in an injury accident, but also if your vehicle's 'presence' was a factor.
• If you have any doubts, we advise you to complete the above steps as soon as the accident happens, regardless of who was at fault.

If you don't follow these steps, it can mean that two offences are being committed - failing to stop and failing to report. It is possible to be guilty of either or both and the penalties for each offence include a maximum fine of £5,000 and five to ten penalty points on your driving licence. The court has the power to disqualify you from driving for either offence and is likely to do so when both offences are committed on the same occasion.

Even if there was no personal injury involved, if someone thinks you are responsible for the accident they have the right to ask for your insurance details. This request can be made later and doesn't have to be at the time of the accident. Not providing that information without a reasonable excuse is also an offence.

It will also be a condition of your insurance policy that you report the accident to your insurance company within a reasonable time, even if you do not want to claim yourself. Failing to do so can give your insurance company the right to refuse to cover you in the future.

The facts

•  Driver tiredness is one of the biggest killers on our roads, particularly on motorways and other monotonous roads, where it causes one in five crashes. Research suggests that about 300 people are killed each year as a result of drivers falling asleep at the wheel.

•  Crashes caused by drivers falling asleep at the wheel typically involve vehicles running off the road or into the back of another vehicle. They tend to be relatively high-speed crashes, because drivers do not brake before crashing, so the risk of death or serious injury occurring is greater than in other types of crashes.

•  Too little sleep radically affects your ability to drive safely and after five hours sleep you only have a one in ten chance of staying fully awake on a lengthy journey

•  WHO IS AT RISK?
The highest group is young male drivers, who are most likely to crash due to tiredness in the early morning after little or no sleep.

•  Older male drivers are also at risk during the mid-afternoon, when it is common to experience a dip in your body clock.

FACT:

About four in ten tiredness-related crashes involve someone driving a commercial vehicle.

THE LAW

•  If you are found to be driving tired, you may be charged with: careless driving (when driving has fallen below the standard expected of a careful and competent driver);
dangerous driving (when driving has fallen far below the standard expected of a careful and competent driver).

•  If you cause a death while driving tired, you can be charged with death by dangerous driving, if there is sufficient evidence available. The maximum penalty for death by dangerous driving is 14 years in prison.

WHAT FACTORS CONTRIBUTE TO DRIVER TIREDNESS?
Many factors can contribute to driver tiredness and increase your risk of being involved in a tiredness-related crash.

•  Time of day
The most common times for drivers (with normal sleep patterns) to fall asleep are early morning (midnight-6am) and early afternoon (2pm-4pm) when the body clock dips .

•  Stress
A typical symptom of stress due to work or home life pressures is tiredness.

•  Lack of sleep

Drivers may suffer lack of sleep for a number of possible reasons:
Disturbed sleep, for example, caused by a baby, stress or domestic problems, or due to sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnoea. To find out more about sleep apnoea, Irregular sleep patterns, this can be a problem if you work shifts and switch regularly from day to night shifts without having sufficient time off in between for your body clock to adjust.
Insufficient rest period's, if you work long hours or have long commutes to work. You may also not get sufficient rest if you juggle more than one job or fit in a demanding hobby.

•  Shifts and rest breaks
If you work long shifts you are more likely to suffer fatigue, particularly if your work involves long journeys on monotonous roads, such as motorways. If you drive for work or as part of your work you will become tired more quickly if you do not take regular breaks from driving.

•  Medication

•  Both prescription drugs, including some anti-depressants and over-the-counter drugs can affect driving by causing drowsiness and impaired alertness. Over-the-counter drugs sometimes carry warnings that are not immediately obvious or entirely clear in the meaning. You should always check with your doctor or pharmacist whether any medication you take can impair driving.

•  Vehicle engineering
Vehicles are often quieter and more comfortable than they used to be, meaning you might be more relaxed when driving. As well as this, driving can have a lulling effect, particularly in vehicles fitted with comfort-enhancing features, such as cruise control.

•  WISE UP!
You should remember that safety is the most important thing to consider while driving, much more important than sticking to a schedule. However, you might not always realise just how tired you are, so it is important that you are aware of the warning signs.

•  If you start to feel sleepy while driving:

• Stop for a 15 minute break somewhere safe as soon as possible. This should never be on the hard shoulder as this is extremely dangerous.
  If you drink caffeine, drink two cups of coffee or a high-caffeine drink, such as an energy drink.

•  Take a 10-15 minute rest or snooze, but no longer as you will go into a different type of sleep. Set an alarm clock to wake you. By the time you wake up the caffeine will have kicked in and you should be ready to continue your journey.

•  If you still feel tired, you should not continue your journey.
Bear in mind that the caffeine is a temporary drug and its effects do not last long. Sleep is the only long-term cure to tiredness.