The Role of High-Risk Behaviors, Fatigue, and Drowsiness in the Occurrence of Road Accidents and Near Miss Accidents among Tehran Truck Drivers in 2019

Background: Road accidents, as the main causes of mortality and disability in the world, have been seriously endangering human health. Human factors are among the most significant causes of road accidents. This study aimed to investigate the association between high-risk behaviors among truck drivers with their fatigue and drowsiness in the occurrence of road accidents and near miss accidents. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted recruiting 200 truck drivers in Tehran using two-stage cluster sampling method, in 2019. A standard driver safety questionnaire was used to collect data, with its reliability measured by the test-retest method. The Fisher's test, a chi-squared test, and the Pearson’s correlation were used to analyze the data. Results: The mean age of the drivers and the mean hour of driving were 47.5 ± 9.05 years and 10.66 ± 2.52 hours, respectively. In addition, the number of accidents had a significant association with the drivers' age, drowsiness, talking on the cell phone, texting, eating snacks, and driving hours. However, it had no significant relationship with drinking tea and smoking. Furthermore, the rate of road accidents had a significant correlation with the drivers' driving time and rest hours. Conclusion: Behaviors and factors, such as talking on the cell phone, texting, eating snacks, long hours of driving per day, long hours of nonstop driving, low rest hours, and drowsiness were among the major causes of accidents among trucks drivers. In this regard, authorities are recommended to run educational courses to modify high-risk driving behaviors so as to reduce road accidents.