Transportation Professionals
Because of the huge impact of sleep related problems on the trucking industry,Dr. Baten has developed a Sleep Wellness Program for Transportation Professionals© and the State of New Mexico. For information, please contact Dr. Baten.
The Costs of Drowsy Driving
A dollar amount cannot be computed from trucking accidents but the impacts
include increased insurance premiums, health care utilization, workers
compensation, decreased productivity and employee turnover.
Drowsy driving, not lack of sleep or driving too many hours, may be caused by
a sleep disorder named Sleep Apnea which affects 60% of the estimated 10 million
truck drivers in the U.S.
The top three disease-related health care expenditures in the trucking industry
are high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. A direct
contributer to these diseases is Sleep Apnea.
Risk Management Strategies for the Trucking Industry
In 2005 trucks were involved in 5,000 fatal crashes and 82,000 injury crashes
resulting in 5,200 deaths and nearly 115,000 injuries at a cost of 12.5 billion dollars.
Research shows that at least 25% of the crashes are sleep related. After diagnosis
and treatment of sleep disorders there has been a 30% accident reduction rate and
substantial health care savings including reductions in claims and hospitalization.
Other benefits of adding a sleep wellness program include:
- a reduced risk of serious workers compensation, auto liability and physical
damage losses - productivity gains from more alert drivers
- drivers enjoying a greater quality of life, and
- improved employee retention
How our Sleep Wellness Program for Transportation Professionals© works.
For your employees, we will provide:
- Diagnostic Screening and All Necessary Treatment of sleep disorders
- On-Going Risk Awareness Training about the problems associated with
undiagnosed and untreated sleep disorders - Education Regarding the Benefits of the improved quality of life through
successful treatment of sleep disorders
