Abstract

Deaths due to automobile accidents account for almost one half of all the accident-related fatalities. Sleeprelated automobile accidents are a serious safety hazard both for the driver who falls asleep and for others on the road. Sleep-related automobile accidents are very common in sleep disorders which cause hipersomno - lence. These are sleep apnea, narcolepsy, other disorders of excessive sleepiness, and sleep disorders without excessive sleepiness. The proportion of individuals with sleep-related accidents was 2-7 times greater in the hipersomnolent patient groups than in the normal populations.

Apneics and narcoleptics accounted for 71% of all sleep-related accidents. In the previous studies, the prevalance of sleep apnea syndrome was about 2-4%.

Patients with sleep apne may be poor drivers with a high accident rate and a high incidence of near-miss vehcile incidents. Since drivers with untreated sleep apnea may cause a large number of preventable automobile accidents, physicians must pay special attention to these drivers. Physicians must try to identify defective drivers with sleep apnea, before they have an accident. Physicians must consider the diagnosis of sleep apnea and treat any seriously defective driver with sleep apnea and keep these patients from driving until they receive successful treatment.