One in two admit sleeping at wheel
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by Juliet Parish • A terrifying 47% of Britain's truck drivers have fallen asleep at the wheel, judging by a Commercial Motor straw poll of truckers.
And as many as 40% of the 15 truck drivers we spoke to at BP's Alconbury truckstop earlier this month admitted that they do drive occasionally while drowsy. Another 30% had heard of a colleague nodding off while driving.
The findings come just after a driver received a 12-month suspended sentence for killing a policeman after falling "into a trance" on the M25.
He had had only
seven hours sleep in _ the two days leading Andrew Der takes shower and a walk up to the accident in to perk himself up.
October 1992.
All those who admitted in our survey to falling asleep on the job say they have learnt from their close scrape with death.
One said that he now makes a point of stopping every two hours regardless of whether he is tired. And another, Alan Deare, who now works for Westwood Transport at Beccles in Suffolk, says ever since his accident 18 years ago he has made sure he has never been drowsy at the wheel.
He only realised he had dropped off when his truck wing mirror was clipped by a telegraph pole and he now makes a point of stopping for coffee if he feels tired.
Other precautions drivers took to avoid nodding off included turning up the radio and opening the window. Driver Andrew Dey at P&O Roadways' Manchester depot says a quick shower and a walk does the trick for him.
The Department of Transport's chief medical adviser Dr John Taylor says drivers should take particular care in the early hours of the morning, after lunch and at the start of a shift when they are relaxed and more prone to falling asleep.