Medical Xpress reports, “People who work nontraditional work hours…are more likely than people with traditional daytime work schedules to develop a chronic medical condition – shift work sleep disorder – that disrupts their sleep.” According to University of Missouri researchers, people who develop this condition are three times more likely to be involved in a vehicle accident. Civil and Environmental Engineering Department Chair and Professor Praveen Edara said, “This discovery has many major implications, including the need to identify engineering countermeasures to help prevent these crashes from happening. Such measures can include the availability of highway rest areas, roadside and in-vehicle messaging to improve a driver’s attention, and how to encourage drivers who may have a late-night work shift to take other modes of transportation, including public transit or ride-share services.” Each year, the National Transportation Safety Board issues an annual “most wanted list” of safety improvement, “and their 2019-2020 list includes ‘screening and treating obstructive sleep apnea’ among the top 10 topic areas.”
From the news release of the American Association for Justice.
