A new study published in the SLEEP journal on Tuesday suggests that drivers who have slept for less than seven hours in the last 24 hours are more likely to be involved in and responsible for car accidents. Although the effects of sleep deprivation on safe driving are known to the public, this is the first peer-reviewed study that assesses the amount of sleep loss associated with lower road safety.

It’s almost common knowledge that experts usually recommend that adults clock in seven to nine hours of sleep a night, but according to US governmental surveys, a third of adults had report normally sleeping for less than seven hours. This can have disastrous implications, as it is also estimated that seven percent of all automobile accidents are related to lack of safe driving due to driver drowsiness. This figure climbs to a staggering 16 per cent when measuring the number of deadly accident involving drowsy drivers.

The risks were highest for adults who reported to have fewer than four hours of sleep at night, as they were found to be over 15 times more likely to be responsible for accidents than those who got the recommended hours of rest. This heightened risk is comparable to the amount posed by drivers whose blood alcohol levels are around 1.5 times higher than the legal limit, according to data from the U.S Department of Transport. These drivers were also found to have an increased risk of being involved in a single-vehicle accidents – accidents that are thought to have a higher risk of injury and death.

Researchers also found that drivers who said they had four hours of sleep were 2.9 times likelier to be responsible for an accident than those who slept the recommended hours. These figures decreased to 1.9 and 1.3 for those who clocked in five and six hours respectively.

The study also reports that drivers who changed their sleep or work schedules were also at increased risk for accidents as well as those who had been driving non-stop for at least three hours.

The author of the study, Brian Tefft, who is a researcher in the AAA foundation of safety says that these findings highlight that falling asleep on the road isn’t the only risk for sleep-deprived drivers. He says that impaired alertness increases the likelihood that drivers will make errors that can have tragic consequences.

Car accident deaths in Qatar

As of 2017, the number of automobile accident-related deaths was reported to be at a rate of 5.4 per 100,000 persons which is lower than the worldwide average of 17 per 100,000 persons, according to General Directorate of Traffic as reported in The Peninsula newspaper earlier this year.

177 people are reported to have died from automobile accident related causes, 45 per cent of which were drivers and 23 per cent passengers.  The remaining 32 per cent of deaths were those of pedestrians. Brigadier Mohammed Saad Al Kharji, Director General of General Directorate of Traffic says that these deaths were mainly attributed to reluctance to fasten seat belts and speeding.

Despite the low number of car accident deaths in Qatar when compared to the global average, the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) says that injuries from automobile accidents are a leading cause of death and that Young Qatari males are the most at risk. MOPH lists its national Road Safety Health Objectives on its website that aims to improve these outcomes.

Sources: Science Daily, Peninsula Qatar