Can organisational safety climate and occupational stress predict

work-related driver fatigue

Speaker: Jenny2008/12/24

Transportation Research Part F 11 (2008) 418–426

Clint Strahan, Barry Watson, Alexia Lennonb

ObjectiveObjective

Evaluate the influence of occupational stress and organizational safety climate on fatigue-related driving behavior

Evaluate whether these variables could predict self-reported near misses that were attributed to driver fatigue

OutlineOutline

Objective IntroductionMethodResultsConclusions

IntroductionIntroduction

Work-related vehicle crashes have been reported as the leading cause of work-related injury and death in many countries. (Pratt, 2003; Charbotel et al., 2001)

Cost of Crashes: 15 billionOrganizations play an important role

in affecting the safety behaviors.This research focused on high-risk

groups such as long distance truck drivers.

IntroductionIntroduction

Driver fatigue: (Stutts et al., 2003)

Sleep Psychological: anxiety, depression Personality: sensation seeking

Occupational stress (Cushway, Tyler, & Nolan, 1996)

Physical consumption Emotional drain Absenteeism Reduced efficiency and performance

IntroductionIntroduction

Occupational stressors contribute to decreased driving performance and vigilance, therefore increase in crash risk. (Legree et al., 2003)

Safety climate: perceptions of the way in which the organisation views and manage safety

Safety climate could significantly predict driver safety-related behaviors, like traffic violation, driving error, distraction.

MethodMethod

Participants: 219Response: 15% (1458 surveys)Mean age: 42.653% male + 46.1% female

Method--measuresMethod--measures

Control variables Age, gender, and time spent driving for work

per weekOccupational stress

job-related tension scale (JRTS) 5-point Likert Scale (never—always) Subjective stress

Method--meauresMethod--meaures

Safety climate Safety climate questionnaire 7-point Likert scale 35 items 6 dimensions (alpha=0.97)

• communication and procedures, work pressure, management commitment, relationships, driver training, safety rules

Method--measuresMethod--measures

Self-reported, fatigue-related behavior 5-point scale Driving after working and insufficient sleep Alpha= 0.82

Self-reported, fatigue-related near misses Question Whether they had experienced a near misses

because of fatigue in past 6 months

Method-- Data analysisMethod-- Data analysis

Hierarchical regression analysis predict fatigue-related driver behavior control variable

Logistic regression Predict self-reported near misses

ResultsResults

ResultsResults

ResultsResults

ConclusionsConclusions

low response ratework environment influences work-

related driver fatigueStrategy: organizational factors to

fatigue riskOrganizations can partly reduce

fatigue-related crashes through safety climate and occupational stress.

Management: take active stances in formulating safety policies and showing organizations commitment

Thank You!