How does the country measure up in road safety, specifically in dealing with sleep-deprived drivers?
Last Saturday, June 24, 2023, a graveyard shift worker, going home to Danao at past 7 a.m., drove her pickup truck into a parked jeepney, three tricycles, a “carinderia (roadside eatery),” and lamppost along the national highway in Barangay Jubay, Liloan town, northern Cebu.
As reported by GPL and Tito P. Tan of SunStar Cebu last June 24, the worker, who just clocked off work at the Cebu I.T. Park, caved in to drowsiness.
Injured were eight persons, some of whom were eating breakfast at the roadside eatery. A lamppost, tables, and chairs were damaged in the accident, which took place at 7:30 a.m.
Sleepiness and sleep deprivation are leading causes of road crash accidents, which represent the eighth leading cause of deaths worldwide,
This is the finding of a research conducted by Shehzad Saleem and uploaded on the official World Health Organization (WHO) website (emro.who.int) http://bit.ly/3Xw8rWk.
The study analyzed online database articles in English from May 2000 to November 2020.
Saleem found out that sleep deprivation was the “main contributor to sleepiness while driving.”
In the rush to resuscitate economies, many urban centers target the status of “cities that never sleep.” Entertainment, shopping, dining, drinking, and work are resuming 24/7.
While this jumpstarting of the economy is much needed, changes also set in motion unanticipated repercussions, particularly life-work balance and livability.
Many companies catering to offshore clients resume on-site work arrangements, including those assigned to the graveyard shift.
Do companies offer accommodations that enable graveyard shift workers to nap after their shift and before driving or commuting home? In the early years of the business process outsourcing industry, companies opened lounges for this purpose.
Contributing from three percent to > 30 percent of all road traffic accidents occurring globally, sleepiness involves other causes besides sleep deprivation, according to the WHO study by Saleem.
The logical step to stop driving and pull over for a nap does not always apply to other factors causing drowsiness while driving, such as illnesses like sleep apnea that affects the quantity and quality of sleep, nutritional imbalances, and medication.
However, alcohol consumption, fewer hours sleeping, and more hours working are increasingly causing voluntary and involuntary sleeplessness and circadian rhythm sleep disorders, with the Saleem study citing related studies in the last 20 years suggesting that sleepiness is “among the main factors that cause road traffic accidents.”
According to the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), a global multi-donor fund hosted by the World Bank and assisting governments develop road safety management capacity, 77 percent of Philippine road crash injuries and fatalities involve persons in the economically productive ages from 15 to 64 years.
The GRSF monitoring shows how the Philippines fares in terms of road safety indicators. With 8,954 vehicles registered for every populace of 100,000, the country has 12,690 road fatalities estimated in 2016 by the WHO.
Considered by the GRSF as the best performing countries in the East Asia and the Pacific region are Micronesia, with 5,406 vehicles registered for every populace of 100,00 and only two estimated road fatalities, according to the WHO; and Kiribati, with 3,240 motorization and five estimated road fatalities.
Globally the best performing countries with the lowest road traffic fatalities are Switzerland, Singapore, Norway and Sweden. For instance, Singapore has 16,604 motorization, with 155 road fatalities estimated by the WHO in 2016.
Stakeholders must re-examine the aim to create economic zones and cities that never sleep.