PubMed · 6041962
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E G Katz. 1967-08-01. Selecting conductive flooring.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6041962/
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Sleepiness is a major cause of traffic accidents. Our purpose was to review determinants of accidents related to sleepiness and measures to prevent them. We performed a systematic literature review on the topic and studied official accident statistics and legislation regarding medical driving ability in Switzerland. In 1997, 79,178 road traffic accidents, each causing bodily injury or property damage in excess of 500 Swiss francs, occurred in Switzerland. According to official statistics, sleepiness accounted for only 1% of identified causes. However, scientific studies performed in other countries suggest that sleepiness is a contributing factor in up to 30% of traffic accidents. Causes of hypersomnolence are sleep restriction, sleep disturbance by external environmental factors, inappropriate sleep hygiene, and sleep disorders. Several reports suggest an increased crash rate in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome. At our clinic, every sixth sleep apnoea patient reports sleepiness-related driving problems which resulted in traffic accidents in one third of them. Long monotonous motorway drives, late night, early morning and late afternoon hours are associated with an increased crash rate. Drivers with excessive sleepiness should not drive until the cause of hypersomnolence is determined and treated appropriately. Medical assessment of driving ability in patients with sleep disorders involves a specific history including standardised questionnaires, sleep studies and vigilance tests. Swiss legislation authorizes physicians to report sleepy drivers to the authorities if they are thought to represent an accident risk for themselves or others. We conclude that sleepiness is a common but under-recognised cause of traffic accidents. Enhancing awareness of the problem in the public, early recognition and treatment of sleep disorders, and counselling of drivers with excessive sleepiness may contribute to prevention.
BACKGROUND: The accident rate in the population, especially injuries to children and youths are in the forefront of attention in all the industrialized countries. The reason is that accidents are the main cause of all deaths in children of over one year of age and in adolescents and accident-linked morbidity in children is second only to diseases of the respiratory tract. The aim of the study was to obtain more exact data than those that were available in the Czech Republic previously and to create conditions for a draft of preventive measures that would bring rapid and effective results. METHODS AND RESULTS: The accident rate in children has been followed up in all age groups attending elementary school. The basic series was comprised of 192,832 children 6.0 to 15.11 years old. An accident was registered in 31 550 pupils. Registered were all accidents by the children in the course of one calendar year and had been treated by a physician. There has been found a statistically highly significant greater total accident rate in boys (18.7%) than in girls (13.9%) by the chi-square test P = 0.00001 at P < 0.05. The most frequent of injuries were fractures, dislocation of joints (55.2%) with girls being affected more frequently than boys. Most frequently the accidents took place at school (25.0%) and at home (21.5%). The greatest number of accidents took place during physical education and organized sports (29.4%) and during games unorganized sports (28.6%). A relatively large number of injuries was sustained in conflicts with a schoolmate (7.4%). CONCLUSION: Much greater attention should be devoted to the prevention of injuries in children, namely at home and at school, because it is not only a health problem that is in question, but also a social and economic one. Abroad, annual losses are estimated at thousands of millions of USD.
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