These people are turned around overnight. They'll say I'm a new person. The symptoms, tiredness and sleepiness, can easily be attributed to other problems. In terms of highway safety, however, experts say that sleep disorders represent only a minor part of the problem. The deeper problem is that average drivers don't perceive fatigue as a concern.
People think they can get by on four, five or six hours of sleep a night.
The problem seems most pronounced in Alberta, where traffic accidents are on the rise in reverse of trends throughout North America. Both he and Evans expressed concern about trucking regulations, particularly in Alberta, which encourage drivers to spend more time behind the wheel. Many studies have noted the relationship between long driving hours and increased crash risk. Yet the trend in the trucking industry, says Jim Goss of Transport Canada, is towards maximizing driving times instead of reducing them. Current regulations prohibit on-duty time exceeding 60 hours a week in Canada, except for trips exclusively within Alberta, where the limit is 100 hours.