Fatigue and Road Safety: A Critical Analysis of Recent Evidence

In this report the DfT identifies the need for a critical evaluation of up­-to-date evidence to accurately determine the current scale of the driver fatigue problem in the UK, and to highlight evidence gaps that may require further research.

A consortium consisting of Clockwork Research, the University of Leeds and the
Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) have worked together to produce a report that
meets the objectives of the Department for Transport; namely, to provide a comprehensive and critical review of the literature that synthesises the evidence
relating to fatigue and road safety.

The report is intended to provide guidance for the Department for Transport Research, Policy and THINK! communication teams.

The Department for Transport research specification identified a list of research questions that were to be addressed by this project. These questions were distributed
between the three teams collaborating on the project. Following an inception meeting, each team worked independently to identify and critically evaluate the key sources relevant to their research questions, according to criteria agreed with the client at the inception meeting.

This report is structured around the research questions identified as being of interest by the Department for Transport. Each section begins with a summary of the
evidence identified as being of most relevance and importance, and then sets out any
evidence gaps that the review identified.

A full list of all the evidence gaps identified throughout the report, together with the recommendations for research to address these gaps, is provided in Appendix 2. The final section of the report (Section 10) provides conclusions and recommendations for the Department for Transport Policy, Research and THINK! communication teams.