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New technology out of Canada detects drowsy drivers |
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Friday, 08 February 2008 |
By Stacey Powells
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
Some of the statistics are quite frightening: between 30 and 40 percent of accidents in North America involving commercial trucks are due to fatigue.
Road accidents are the #1 killer in the workplace.
Truck drivers and salespeople are the group most at risk.
In raw totals, road accidents have been the top overall killer of workers—mainly truck drivers and traveling salespeople—since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping the data in 1992. Slightly more than 1,300 were killed last year, about the same number as in 2005. The category ranks ninth in per capita deaths, with 27 per 100,000 employees. According to the Federal Highway Administration, almost two-thirds of all highway fatalities in the United States are categorized as "road departures," as opposed to intersection or pedestrian accidents, an indication of tired drivers veering out of their lanes or off the road altogether.
Living in a geographical area such as ours, thousands of Mono and Inyo county residents travel long distances for doctors' appointments, shopping trips or to visit family members. They are on the road a lot and many of them have had to pull over for a cat nap because they've started nodding off while driving.
The transportation industry and the various government agencies handling the issues of road safety are striving to lower the numbers of road accidents caused by driver tiredness. This hard work is being achieved by new compliance rules, legislation and the implementation of fatigue management programs such as education, training and the use of cutting edge technology.
A Canadian company, Effective Control Transport, has developed a revolutionary technology that can detect the precursor signs of fatigue. One of the many features of ECT's suite of applications is the Folo Cognitive Resource Availability Manager (CRAM).
The Folo CRAM indicates in real time the transition from a secure driving state of “high alertness” to an non-secure driving state of “dangerously low alertness,” thus allowing the driver and fleet manager to take a preventive action like issuing a stop and rest instruction, ideally long before a potential accident can occur. Since it requires no special connection or wiring, the Folo CRAM does not affect the driver's normal performance.
“This product will be better than anything else on the market because it uses an infrared camera to take in the facial indicators,” says Selam Tewolde, VP of Public Relations for Effective Control Transport, in a telephone interview. “By preventing a driver from driving in the lower levels of alertness, we can successfully avoid a potentially fatal accident. The Folo CRAM solution uses biometric technology to distinguish between the four states of alertness, and can detect the first signs of drowsiness and alert the driver and dispatch if needed that it’s the time to rest before a low state of alertness is reached, thus preventing catastrophic consequences.”
It can also give a good indication of alcohol and chemical impairment due to the fact that alcohol and drugs or other medication can induce the same symptoms. It should be noted that the detection of drugs or alcohol use is not the goal of the device. It doesn’t differentiate between sleep, alcohol or drug impairment; its goal is to signal a lowered level of alertness hence, reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on the road.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 14 February 2008 )
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