Crash Risk and Mobile Device Use Based on Fatigue and Drowsiness Factors in Truck Drivers

Driver distraction has become a major concern for the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT). Performance decrements are typically the result of driver distraction because attentional resources are limited, which are limited; fatigue and drowsiness limit attentional resources further. The purpose of the current research is to gain an understanding of the relationship between mobile device use (MDU), fatigue, through driving time and time on duty, and drowsiness, through time of day and amount of sleep, for commercial motor vehicle drivers. A re-analysis of naturalistic driving data was used to obtain information about the factors, MDU, safety-critical events (SCE), and normal driving epochs. Odds ratios were used to calculate SCE risk for 6 mobile device use subtasks and each of the factors, which were divided into smaller bins of hours for more specific information. A generalized linear mixed model and chi-square test were used to assess MDU for each factor and the associated bins. Results indicated visually demanding subtasks were associated with an increase in SCE risk, but conversation on a hands-free cell phone decreased SCE risk. There was an increase in SCE risk for visual manual subtasks for all bins in which analyses were possible. Drivers had a higher proportion of MDU in the early morning (circadian low period) than all other times of day that were analyzed. These results will be used to create recommended training and evaluate policy and technology and will help explain the relationship between MDU, fatigue, and drowsiness.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Toole, Laura

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Smith-Jackson, Tonya L.
• Hanowski, Richard J.

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Winchester, Woodrow W.

• Commercial motor vehicles
• Fatigue
• drowsiness
• distraction
• Naturalistic Truck Driving Study

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:56

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/47599