Session Schedule

Find a specific presentation in the session by navigating to the timestamp indicated below.

0:00:00
Introduction

0:00:34
WHO global report on road safety: Current professional driver work hours legislation and future targets
Fangfang Luo (China)

0:18:15
Continuous drowsiness monitoring to assess work hours impact on professional driver drowsiness: A naturalistic study
Mark Howard (Australia)

0:32:00
Applying guidelines for work shift and break duration to professional driver work hours regulations
Hans Van Dongen (United States)

0:49:20
Panel discussion/presentation: Pathway to global professional driver work hours regulations: Regulations and challenges in Nigeria
Morenikeji Komolafe (Nigeria)

0:55:45
Panel discussion/presentation: Pathway to global professional driver work hours regulations: Regulations and challenges in China
Fang Han (China)

Summary

1.2 million annual fatalities globally make road traffic injuries the leading cause of death in 5-29-year-olds and the 12th most common cause in all ages. The risk is three times higher in low-income countries. Driver drowsiness accounts for 20% of all road crashes, but 30-50% of professional driver crashes. This symposium will present findings from The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Report on Road Safety 2023, novel continuous driver drowsiness monitoring data evaluating driver work hours impacts, and provide a global perspective on current driver work hours legislation and the path to meet WHO targets. The WHO report assessed professional driver work hour legislation and found that 83 of 172 member countries had legislation related to rest periods but only 30 countries specified maximum driving hours and 25 minimum rest break duration. The WHO has set a target for all countries to enact driver work hour legislation and is engaged with the World Sleep Society, Sleep, and Traffic Safety Task Force to inform the target guidelines.
Driver work hours schedules directly influence driver sleep duration and quality, circadian impacts on drowsiness, driving impairment, and crash risk. Driver drowsiness monitoring based on eye-blink characteristics is being increasingly used by professional drivers. This study monitored drivers during 197 shifts using continuous drowsiness monitoring while driving and recorded driver work hours, breaks, and sleep duration. The odds of a driver drowsiness event were increased by 14 times after 16 hours of driving and 17 times if prior sleep was under six hours. Short break durations under seven hours, five or more consecutive shifts, and night and rotating shifts also increased drowsiness events. These schedule features interacted. This study demonstrates the unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of driver work hours using continuous driver drowsiness monitoring to ensure safe driver work hours.
The WHO Global Report on Road Safety highlights differences in professional driver work hours legislation across the globe. Driver work hour legislation may also vary within countries between different professional driver groups, such as heavy vehicle drivers, bus drivers, and commercial passenger carriers such as taxis and Uber drivers where work hours may be poorly defined. Regulators balance scientific input on safe work hours for drivers with industry operational requirements and financial impacts. Sleep scientists and clinicians need to engage with regulators to inform regional guidelines. The symposium's international panel of sleep scientists and regulators will present global data on current professional driver regulations and regional challenges in developing and enforcing legislation. Multi-national guidelines on the principles for shift work design to optimize health and safety will be presented. The international panel will consider key recommendations for professional drivers globally, including maximum work hours and minimum break durations (in addition to listed authors, Professor Walter McNicholas (Ireland) and Dr Arezu Najafi (Iran, World Sleep Research Trainee Class of 2021) will contribute to the panel discussion). This symposium will underpin the collaboration between the World Sleep Society, Sleep and Traffic Safety Task Force, and WHO to inform global professional driver work hours targets.