The likelihood of crashing during a simulated post-work commute decreases across a week of consecutive night shifts

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of working multiple, consecutive night shifts on crash risk during the morning commute. Participants (36 F, 36 M, aged 23.1 ± 3.6 y) completed a laboratory-based shiftwork protocol with seven consecutive night shifts (23:00–07:00 h) that each started and ended with a 20 min simulated commute. Compared to the corresponding pre-work commutes, the likelihood of crashing during the post-work commutes was 11.0-, 8.5-, and 5.6-fold higher at the start, middle, and end of the week, respectively. The results of this simulation study indicate that crash risk is relatively high during the morning commute but declines throughout a week of night work.

KEYWORDS:

• Shiftwork
• driving simulator
• subjective sleepiness
• speed deviation
• lane deviation
• sleep strategy
• occupational health and safety
• workplace health and safety

Declaration of interest

We, the authors, conduct research projects that have received funding in the past, are currently being funded, and may be funded in the future, by organizations that employ shiftworkers to work at night. This particular project did not receive financial support from any such organizations.

We, the authors, are responsible for the content of this paper, we are thankful to the volunteers who participated in this project, and we are appreciative of the financial support for this project that was provided by Discovery Project grants from the Australian Research Council.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council.