About 11% of all motorway accidents caused by fatigue occur between 4am and 6am with drivers 13 times more likely to have a sleep -related accident as someone driving between 10am to noon, or from 8pm -10pm. In an RAC Foundation poll last year more than 60% of drivers questioned said they had driven whilst sleepy, of which 8% had at some point nodded off at the wheel. Also 30% said they felt more stressed, angry and more likely to confront other drivers when they were tired.

In the 1990’s the Sleep Research Laboratory at Loughborough University of Technology, collaborated with Leicestershire police to conduct a study on sleepiness among motorway drivers on Midlands motorways and found that many sleep-related accidents were clustered in 3 periods - midnight to 2am: 4am to 6am and 2pm to 4pm. They also discovered that the total time that the driver had spent at the wheel was not as important as the amount of sleep he had had. A quarter of the accidents occurred within an hour of the start of the journey, with the RAC Foundation calling for more rest areas and more research into sleepiness detectors in cars. These detectors can emit an alarm when the driver is showing the first sign of drowsiness.

Not only does fatigue cause road accidents but recent research has shown that talking on the mobile phone is also more dangerous than drink driving, with drivers using hand held phone whilst driving being 30% slower to react than those who had been drinking and 50% less reactive than a sober motorist. Breaking distance, at 70mph was 46ft longer than for a normal driver and 33ft more than a drunk driver.

The report was commissioned by the insurance company Direct Line after a recent survey it conducted found that 3 out of 10 drivers - equivalent to about 10 million British motorists admitted using a mobile phone behind the wheel. The study was conducted by the Transport Research Laboratory in Berkshire and offers conclusive evidence of the dangers of using mobile phones whilst driving and increases the pressure on the Government to follow 35 other countries by introducing a specific ban on using hand-held phones at the wheel. At present it is not a specific offence to use a mobile on the road but drivers can be prosecuted for failing to be in full control of their vehicle. MPs have called for a total ban on the use of hand-held phones in cars. In Japan the number of people injured in accidents involving the use of mobile phones fell by 53% after a specific ban was introduced in 1999. The 3 month Transport Research Laboratory study involved 20 ( male and female) volunteers aged 21 to 45 who each took turns at a 7 minute simulator test involving motorway driving, taking bends and keeping a safe distance. All of them completed the test without any alcohol, with enough alcohol to put them over the limit, chatting on an in-car phone and using a mobile phone. The respective stopping distances after braking at 70mph, were 102ft (31 m), 115ft (35m), 128ft (39m) and 148ft (45m).

The report said: ‘The distraction caused by making or receiving a call can be visual, auditory, mental, or physical (biochemical). A hand-held mobile phone call could involve all 4 forms of distraction at the same time’. Drivers who used their phones to text messages were subject to the highest levels of physical and visual distraction.The researchers concluded:"This study demonstrates beyond doubt that using a mobile phone when driving significantly impairs the driver’s attention, more so than a blood alcohol limit at the UK legal limit of .08BAC".