Sleep Deprived Truck Drivers

Sleep Deprived Truck Drivers

Article by George Mitchell Sr.

It’s a well known fact. Every single day 14 people in America die in trucker linked crashes – many more get injured. Every single day.It is another fact that the average American trucker won’t live enough time to gather social security.

The profile of the greatest quantity of sleep apnea sufferers, unhealthy eating habits, weight problems, poor health practices, fit the profile of the typical trucker who actually makes truck stop buffets a contest, and takes much less time for sleep than those who aren’t paid by the mile.

Nationwide medical studies report that seven out of 10 18 wheel drivers classify as being obese. One Midwest transportation company recently reported their condition to be even worse than that. Their CEO said he thinks almost fifty percent of his truck drivers were identified to be morbidly obese.

An advertisement by the Sleep4Safety.com group in the current issue of national trucking magazine Driver Health(circulation 100,000) proclaims that death is not a kind of retirement and asks its truck driving readers, did you know the average trucker will die before their 61st birthday? Sobering and definitely food for thought as you glance in your rear view mirror at the 18 wheeler closing fast behind you.

Sleep4Safety CEO Sigurjon Kristjannson contends an eighteen wheel truck operated by a sleep-deprived driver could be as unsafe as a drunk driver heading the wrong direction along the interstate. Consider, he suggests, that three of each and every 10 truckers you observe on the highway today most likely possess the situational awareness equivalent to having .06 to .08 alcohol in their blood system. They’re, in a very real sense, he states, driving intoxicated – not an alcohol fueled intoxication, nevertheless one produced by chronic lack of sleep. Think about, exactly how far an 18 wheeler, traveling 60 miles an hour, travels in the brief moment the operator nods off and what can happen during that time.

Dr Jeffrey Durmer, Atlanta, identified in the publication as “Dr Sleep” and also the Chief Medical Officer at Sleep4Safety wants to employ sleep testing to identify those drivers with snoring problems and then on-the-job treatment. Driver Health publisher Andy Shefsky writes that his goal would be to raise the typical truck driver life span age from just shy of 61 to 77, to the average American life span.

Accomplishing that will require 18 wheel pilots to eat properly, exercise, and check to make sure, as easy as it sounds, they’re getting enough good sleep. And, if not, to simply accept non-intrusive treatment on the job.

The cost of failing to achieve this, goes far beyond the equipment repair and replacement to the astronomical medical bills, soaring insurance costs for companies to the 14 people who, every day, lose their life from a trucking accident one of each three being the trucker himself.Sleep well and hope that trucker approaching in the rear of did too.

Pithy Quotes: ?You never know when checkout time is.? Val Dempsey, CEI, Atlanta

Bud Carter is the publisher of a motivational quotes book entitled Chairman Carter?s Collection of Pithy Quotes (Quotes intended to boost your bottom line, or, at the very least, your attitude). He is in addition the Senior Chairman of Vistage Atlanta.

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