Crash Analysis and Public Survey for Drowsy-Driving Advisory Systems

Abstract

Nearly 40–50% of crashes involving drowsy driving result in occupants’ fatalities or injuries in the United States. Furthermore, such crashes have been underreported, due to deficiencies in the law enforcement’s crash reporting forms and the difficulty of attributing crashes to drowsy driving with lack of drivers’ information. Thus, it is important for people to be aware of the risk of drowsy driving, and methods and efforts to reduce such crashes should be taken into account. This paper discussed some research findings during the course of developing a drowsy driving advisory (DDA) system, an engineering countermeasure to reduce such crashes. Characteristics of drowsy driving crashes and relationships between the crashes and the location of rest areas were investigated through a crash analysis. The crash analysis showed that (1) drowsy driving crash rates are higher at rural interstate sections than those at urban sections, and (2) the location of drowsy driving crashes is correlated to the location of roadside rest areas. A list of safety messages were developed for the DDA system and were introduced at a public survey where people’s preferences to the messages were observed. The survey results showed that the safety messages with practical and specific examples of drowsy driving risk received a noticeably higher response ratio from survey participants as compared to the ones with general and nonspecific examples. In addition, a large fraction of survey participants said they would consider stopping and resting if they see the safety messages on the road.