Running on empty

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Rowan Bridge drove a car simulator after staying up all night to see how much his performance was affected

By Rowan Bridge BBC Radio 5 Live's Breakfast

Driving when tired is the biggest killer of police officers in England and Wales, according to the Police Federation. How does fatigue affect motorists - and are we good at judging our competence?

The federation says that since 2000, more than 40 officers have died while driving to or from work, and this year there have already been three deaths.

Stacey Pyke, 20, had been a police officer for just a week when she fell asleep at the wheel on the way home from her first-ever night shift.

There is definitely a social stigma around drinking and driving, but with tiredness it creeps up on you, so gradually people think they can get to their destination Dr Nick Reed, Transport Research Laboratory

Driving back from Lincolnshire to her home in Yaxley, Cambridgeshire, she nodded off and ended up driving into oncoming traffic.

Two years on from the crash, it is still hard for Stacey's father David to come to terms with what happened.

He says he never imagined his daughter might die behind the wheel of her car.

"My worst nightmare with her being in the police force was that she was going to end up shot or stabbed or murdered somehow.

"I never ever dreamed for one minute that she would fall asleep at the wheel and be killed the way that happened to her.

"I just couldn't believe, and still can't believe that it's happened, and when you've got young police officers joining the force, let them see the statistics. At least we could have made her a bit more aware."

Serious accidents

The problem of falling asleep at the wheel goes far beyond just police officers.

Pc Stacey Pyke died in a head-on collision after a night shift

Dr Nick Reed is a senior researcher at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), and an expert in what happens when you try and drive when you are tired.

He says sleepy drivers are estimated to be involved in between 10% and 20% of accidents on the road network.

The problems are worse on motorways because it is a relatively monotonous drive, and that is when drivers tend to drift off and have accidents.

And when an accident does happen, it can be more serious.

"A tired driver may not take any avoiding action to the accident", says Dr Reed, "so they may not brake, they may not try to steer away from any obstacle, and that results in a much more serious accident."

In 2002 Gary Hart was jailed for five years after being found guilty of causing 10 deaths in the Selby rail disaster. He had fallen asleep at the wheel.

At his trial the court heard how he had been up most of the night before, talking on the phone to a woman he met over the internet.

Dr Reed says drivers are very bad judges of whether they are fit to be behind the wheel.

"There is definitely a social stigma around drinking and driving, but with tiredness it creeps up on you, so gradually people think they can get to their destination, they can make it to the next exit - and that's when the danger can occur."

At the headquarters of TRL, drivers can career off the road safe in the knowledge that the only thing that's going to get dented is their view of their own driving.

'Microsleeps'

I try the TRL simulator - after no sleep all night and no alcohol or caffeine.

The testers have deliberately programmed a monotonous stretch of motorway for me to drive down, and I soon find my mind wandering on to other thoughts, even though I'm trying to concentrate on the road.

The next thing I'm aware of is jerking myself awake having fallen asleep without realising it.

The researchers say I experienced 12 "microsleeps" where I started to drift off before jerking awake again, and altogether I managed to drive 2.5 kilometres effectively asleep at the wheel.

Driver fatigue specialist Mark Chattington says my experiences are far from unusual.

"It is definitely worrying that if you take the incidence when you had a close encounter with an HGV, that was 450 metres prior to that point that you weren't in full control of the car.

"Although on that occasion you woke up, there are plenty of cases where people haven't been that lucky."