Effectiveness of UK motorway services areas in reducing sleep-related and other collisions

Abstract

In the UK, motorway service areas (MSAs) are believed to be helpful in reducing sleep (‘fatigue’) related collisions (SRCs), however, their actual effectiveness has yet to be evaluated. During a 2–3-year period, and over two sections of UK motorways comprising 14 MSA sites, assessments were undertaken of all fatal and injury road traffic collisions (RTCs), especially SRCs. Analyses examined whether there was: (i) a reduction in collisions 16 km beyond MSAs compared with the same distance beforehand; (ii) accumulation of collisions with increasing inter-MSA distances. Within the 16 km regions there was a non-significant fall in all RTCs from 355 before MSAs, to 304 afterwards. However, the 22% decrease in SRCs (108 vs. 84) was significant. Cars comprised the greatest reduction in SRCs possibly attributable to a MSA. Including and beyond these 16 km regions, there was no correlation between inter-MSA distances and accumulated RTCs or SRCs ( n = 682 of which 181 were SRCs [26%]). There were obvious differences between MSAs in all these respects. Of the 23 fatal RTCs, 17 were SRCs. Whilst SRCs had their greatest daily incidence between 02:00 h and 06:00 h, as expected, MSAs seemed to have their least beneficial effect on SRCs during this vulnerable period, which is a matter for concern.