Obstructive sleep apnoea and driving.

Abstract

This article describes the risks to patients with obstructive sleep apnoea of falling asleep while driving. Patients with this disease often report loss of concentration while driving, particularly on motorways in the dark. Many long distance lorry drivers have the disease, as they commonly have the major risk factor, obesity. In a survey of fatal truck accidents, the American National Transportation Safety Board is now asking relatives routinely about features of obstructive sleep apnoea, as three recent reports have shown that the road traffic accident rate of patients with this condition is up to seven times greater than that of normal drivers. The proportion of crashes in which the driver was at fault and the number of traffic violations were both appreciably higher in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea than in other drivers. About one third of the patients had had car crashes in the previous 5 years. It is suggested that as regards fitness to drive, obstructive sleep apnoea should be classified with epilepsy, hypoglycaemia and adams-stokes attacks, and that further research should be done in order to ascertain its contribution to deaths on British roads. (TRRL)