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 Vermoeidheid
- WVW1994 art. 5
«Het is een ieder verboden zich zodanig te gedragen dat gevaar op de weg wordt veroorzaakt of kan worden veroorzaakt of dat het verkeer op de weg wordt gehinderd of kan worden gehinderd.»
- RVV1990 art. 19
«De bestuurder moet in staat zijn zijn voertuig tot stilstand te brengen binnen de afstand waarover hij de weg kan overzien en waarover deze vrij is.»
- RVV1990 art. 61a
«Het is degene die een voertuig bestuurt verboden tijdens het rijden een mobiel elektronisch apparaat dat gebruikt kan worden voor communicatie of informatieverwerking vast te houden. Onder een mobiel elektronisch apparaat wordt in elk geval verstaan een mobiele telefoon, een tabletcomputer of een mediaspeler.»
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