Fatigue at the wheel
| What happens | Where it comes from | Where it goes wrong | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What fatigue does to you | According to SWOV, tired people are less alert and react more slowly and less adequately. They also become irritated and frustrated more quickly. | Two effects at once, and the second is rarely counted — irritated driving is also a consequence of lack of sleep, not only of character. | Watching only for “falling asleep”. The slow, not-quite-adequate reaction does the damage long before your eyes close. |
| Too much — or too little to do | SWOV names three sources together: little or poor night sleep, long uninterrupted time at the wheel, and long periods with TOO MUCH OR ACTUALLY TOO LITTLE to do. | Underload is the counter-intuitive one: an empty motorway at night asks so little of you that alertness drains away by itself. SWOV expects this to grow as driving tasks are automated. | Taking a quiet trip for a safe trip. It is precisely the dull, straight, empty road where fatigue crashes happen. |
| Who is most at risk | Fatigue crashes appear relatively frequent among professional drivers, shift and night workers, people with sleep disorders and young men. | Three of the four groups share one thing: their sleep does not coincide with the night. The fourth — young men — drive at night more often. | Placing yourself outside the groups because you are not a professional driver. One short night simply puts you in them for that day. |
| What the law does about it | There is no ban on “driving tired”. What does exist is art. 5 WVW — causing or being able to cause danger — and art. 19 RVV, which demands an ABILITY that fatigue takes away. | The law therefore takes hold of the RESULT, not the state. That is not a gap: a state you cannot measure you also cannot forbid. | Concluding from “there is no ban” that it is allowed. Liability comes afterwards and is heavier: in a crash, fatigue is a circumstance that counts against you, not for you. |
The law itself
SWOV Factsheet VermoeidheidWVW1994 art. 5RVV1990 art. 19RVV1990 art. 61a
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