Sleep-related fatal vehicle accidents: characteristics of decisions made by multidisciplinary investigation teams.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze factors that explain the attribution of crash causes as sleep-related by accident investigators.


METHODS
Analysis of national database of fatal road accidents studied in depth. All nonprofessional nonintoxicated car drivers responsible for a fatal accident from 1991 to 2001 were included (N = 1464).


METHODS
Finland, with approximately 5.1 million inhabitants and 2.3 million motor vehicles.


METHODS
N/A.


METHODS
N/A.


METHODS
Comprehensive database recorded by multidisciplinary investigation teams, with specific emphasis on the availability of sleep-related driver variables and sleep-related causal decisions by teams.


RESULTS
Injury severity, age, and marital status of the responsible car driver were related to the proportion of missing data in fatigue-related variables in the database (sleeping time, time awake, lifetime mileage). While there were differences between investigation teams and their activities, a series of logistic regression models showed that the lack of relevant variables in the database did not affect the proportion of accidents attributed to falling asleep (10% of cases) or as having fatigue-related causal factors (an additional 5% of the cases). The accident type (head-on and running-off versus other) and road conditions (dry or wet versus icy or snowy pavement) predicted the investigation teams' attribution of sleep-related causes in all models.


CONCLUSIONS
Multidisciplinary teams' attribution of sleep-related causal factors were rather stable, comprising 10% to 15% of the cases investigated, independent of the availability of specific sleep-related information.
Radun
Igor
I
Department of Psychology, Traffic Research Unit, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. igor.radun@helsinki.fi
Summala
Heikki
H
D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001334:Automobile Driving; D003657:Decision Making; D005221:Fatigue / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010348:Patient Care Team; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013997:Time Factors