NEWS

ENT call: Sleepiness at the wheel

By: sumue

Sleepiness at the wheel is not only a scientific problem but a political and social issue. Understanding and fighting it are political challenges. Indeed, sleepiness seems to be a cause of at least 15-20% of road crashes. This factor may be even higher than alcohol. Moreover most of alcohol-related accidents occur during the night and are combined with sleepiness. This stake is then of high importance in the field of road safety. However, sleepiness is today not really taken into account in transport policies in Europe (both at national and European level). The effects are rather unknown. The two objectives of the joint call are: 1. to understand sleepiness at the wheel – prevalence, risk, mechanisms 2. to identify effective countermeasures to fight sleepiness at the wheel . Minutes Page 2 of 5 The sleepiness-related risk seems to differ significantly from one country to another. Therefore a transnational and compared approach should have real added value in the understanding of the phenomenon. Searching for solutions also deserves a transnational European level. A consortium composed of research teams from several countries should find common solutions to this common problem. ENT15 joint call aims at both raising awareness on this issue and coordinating new national research policies in this field. Synergies between countries bring efficient joint results.