Safe Speed Forums

In todays Sun:


http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005540060,00.html

By TIM SPANTON

ONE in six truckers suffers a sleep disorder that could make them nod off at the wheel, research shows.

Obstructive sleep apnoea affects more than 80,000 British heavy goods vehicle drivers, the Transport Safety Group has found.

Many don’t know they have the disorder until they are in an accident.

Now experts are urging truckers to get checked out by a doctor.

Transport Safety Group director Jim Moylan said: “It’s vital the freight industry takes this seriously. Drivers and managers could face manslaughter charges.”

OSA is relatively common and makes sufferers stop breathing for up to 30 seconds a time.

These breaks can occur 300 times a night without a person realising.

Sometimes they will keep waking up and on others they will miss out on deep sleep. OSA is twice as likely to hit men than women. Symptoms can include daytime sleepiness and irritability.

Middle-aged, overweight men are most at risk.

Truckers’ lifestyles make obesity a big problem and doctors estimate four per cent of middle-aged men suffer OSA.

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Semper in excreta, nur quantitat variat.

One of the many reasons for disturbed sleep for truckers is having to sleep in lay-bys, where you get rocked to sleep by the motion of passing vehicles, which can also rock you awake.
Perhaps if there were more, instead of less, safe truck parks the problem would reduce.
In the last month there have been half a dozen truck parks close down, Why?, because people want the goods that trucks carry, but don't want the trucks parking in their neighborhood.
Another problem is that many hauliers will not reimburse the driver for the parking fees, they want you to park up somewhere safe to protect their vehicle, and possibly the goods you carry, but won't cover the cost of parking, they expect the driver to pay this out of their own pocket.
Then you get the problem of delivery points, this from a truckers forum:

I was asked if I wanted a few hours work with XXX on Saturday night, sure I said.

From Derby go to Shaw Cross X solo and pick up trailer to go to XXXXX Crick

I was given the transport managers mobile if difficulties arose

Arrived at XXXXX for my booking in time of 22.30 no problems 3 wagons in front of me, placed myself on break as two of the drivers went past me they smiled at me I thought they were just happy to be getting tipped.

50 minutes later the guy came round to find me and said ‘you got a box trailer on so you need to go round to bay A’ did as I was told and the bay was empty. I thought quick tip here and get back home in good time.

4 hours latter no tip yet, went around to the office and asked if there was any problems, manager there said ‘we need to clear the area so the goods can go into stock.’ I’m not the kind of driver who will shout and scream, but one who is calm and let things blow in the wind.

I thought I give it until 5.00 and I will ring the transport manager see if he wants me to pull off or not.

5.00 came and went, rang transport manager up and said wait until it gets tipped.

If any of you was working Saturday night early Sunday morning you will know how cold it was and the night heater which was not working it felt even colder.

6.00 came and change over of duty, still no tip

7.00 I was quite getting freaky 1.5 hours I would have to park up because of 15.00 will be up

Decided to go round and see what the problem was and they said it wont be tipped for another 45 minutes, said I cant wait that long as it will take me 1hr to get back up to Derby.

Rang Transport manager he was quite calm and sounded very sleepy, but would could he do? I had told him I pulled off and just informing him I could not leave the trailer on site so I was brining it back to Derby with me.

So the moral of this story is if you go to XXXXX Crick with supplies on with a box trailer you just might have a wait.

I don’t know if in certain situation when you wait hours on end to get tipped to scream and shout at the clerks in the office or stay cool and clam and show them I’m not bothered if they want it they will tip it.

Looks like if they are having a bad day everyone suffers.

This illustrates the problem, it also helps to show you why goods are so expensive in the shops, the drivers wages have to be covered, the standing time for the truck have to be covered.

Crazy isn't it.

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Semper in excreta, nur quantitat variat.

In reading this it makes me wonder why is it only truckers who suffer, and why were only truckers tested? There are plenty of other drivers who drive throughout the night, and drive long distances. So should they not have carried out tests on all types of drivers?

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

It's on BBC CEEFAX P105 too.

It says it will be featured on BBC1's 'Real Story'.

It calls the condition: "Obstructive Sleep Apnoea". Google gets 142,000 hits.

This page says about 1% of men are affected: http://www.priory.com/cmol/obstruct.htm

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Time for a bit of fighting back.

The MD of TrucknetUK is taking part in a televised discussion with the producer of Real Story tomorrow on a programme called NewsWatch,


This is to be broadcast on
BBC News 24:Friday at 2045 and 0045 BST
And Repeated
Saturdays at 0745 BST on BBC Breakfast

There are many forms of motorised vehicle on the road:

Coaches/Buses X
Taxi's X
Car's
Vans
Motorcycles
Cranes X
HGVs X

Only those marked X have to have a medical to retain their licence. Does this mean that the drivers of the other vehicles do not get Sleep Apnoea?

How do you answer the question from your doctor, "Do you suffer from Sleep Apnoea?"
Er, don't know, I was asleep at the time.

You also have Pilots, train drivers, ships captains, I'm sure there are more.
So why were truck drivers singled out?

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Semper in excreta, nur quantitat variat.

Not a bad fight back from Lucy on the programme.
She managed to get some good point across, pity it wasn't longer, only about 5 minutes to fight against a longer programme.

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Semper in excreta, nur quantitat variat.