The number of people killed in road accidents on the roads of Russia is high. And often the cause of fatal accidents is the irresponsible behavior of drivers. They do not follow the rules, exceed the speed limit and drive onto the track when tired.

In early October, late at night - at 02:45 - another fatal accident occurred on one of the Russian highways. The minivan and KamAZ collided due to the fact that the foreign car drove into the oncoming lane. The impact was so strong that the truck overturned into a ditch. The victims of this accident were four men, three participants in the road accident received serious injuries - spinal fractures, head injuries, skull fractures and bruises.

"The minivan was heading in the direction of Tyumen, people were driving from the Kurgan region from customs. Perhaps the driver fell asleep at the wheel. KamAZ was moving in the direction of the city. The roadway was treated with an anti-icing mixture," the regional State Traffic Inspectorate said. There are a lot of such examples across the country. And then, naturally, the question arises: how to convey to drivers that they should not drive when they want to sleep.

Dangers of driving

Often, doctors say that the state of a tired person is similar to that of someone who has consumed alcohol. At the same time, in the second case, it is strictly forbidden to get behind the wheel and is punishable by serious fines, and in the first case it remains unpunished.

"The state of a very tired person and a person who is under the influence of alcoholic substances is different in origin, but as a result they give similar effects," says the Honored Doctor of the Russian Federation, member of the Presidium of the All-Russian Society of Narcologists Tatyana Batysheva. "How does alcohol affect the work of the centers? of the brain, which regulate vascular tone, changes autonomic reactions, for example, increases the heart rate, changes pulse pressure, pulmonary ventilation.

As a result of overwork, a person's ability to consciously control his movements is significantly reduced. There is a sharp decline in strength, shortness of breath, palpitations. One of the most dangerous signs of fatigue a driver can experience is visual deception. In front of him on the road, obstacles, various objects and objects that are actually not there can "appear". Usually, these hallucinations are clearly manifested when a person is actively trying to overcome drowsiness, which is falling stronger and stronger with every second. As a result, he finds himself in a borderline state, when he does not feel at all that he has fallen asleep, and continues to be sure that he is awake.

And after all, everyone understands themselves

According to research carried out by VTsIOM commissioned by the Russian Union of Auto Insurers, it was revealed that the majority of Russians are confident in theory that a tired driver on the road is evil. 70% of those surveyed note that a tired driver puts himself at great risk on the road. Moreover, the danger of driving in a state of fatigue was confirmed by both drivers with not particularly good knowledge of the rules of the road, and those who consider themselves professionals on the road.

And here we can only hope for the conscientiousness of the citizens themselves. After all, even the traffic police inspectors who stopped the car will not be able to bring the driver to justice.

“There is no such term as“ fatigue ”. In documents related to road traffic, there is the term“ fatigue. ”The inspector can assess the physical state of the driver when the vehicle stops only in cases where quantitative indicators are clearly regulated. in the blood of alcoholic or narcotic drugs. The driver's fatigue, the speed of his reaction in the absence of signs of alcohol or drug intoxication, the inspector cannot assess. Especially when the vehicle is stopped at night, when weather conditions do not even allow a visual inspection of the driver "- the head of the control organization department notes for the transportation of passengers and goods of the technical supervision department of the Main Traffic Safety Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Roman Samsonov.

How to wake yourself up

Traditionally, drivers try to help themselves in different ways. They drink water, dissolve pieces of ice, gnaw seeds, spray cold water from a spray bottle on their face, etc. At the same time, as experts say, all these methods are completely ineffective and have no effect. The brain continues to shut down.

Studies have shown that the driver must take breaks to rest, possibly sleep. "There are also states when you seem not to be tired, but tends to sleep. I often met drivers who fell asleep at the wheel. I closed my eyes for a second ... and you are already in a ditch. And in this case, any coffee or energy drink is a dead poultice." It is better to just pokemarit for half an hour. After all, foreigners, they did not just come up with a system of "4 hours." They may just close their eyes to some wrong parking. Compared to the driver's fatigue, these are trifles, because most accidents happen precisely from fatigue, "says the driver Vladimir Knyazev.

At the same time, as the drivers note, the tachograph system, which has now been launched in Russia for cargo and passenger transportation, is far from ideal, although the idea of \u200b\u200bthe device itself is quite acceptable. Many drivers complain that there are no parking points where you can eat, wash and rest at the allotted time: when in Europe there is a parking lot every 10-20 km of the highway, in Russia there are not always even banal driveways.

"Of course, the tachograph system will objectively not work if real conditions are not provided for the implementation of control procedures, and these conditions are not provided at the current stage of the system's development, and this is a fact," explains Gennady Miroshin, chairman of the Rustakhokontrol Association. without taking into account the possibility of implementing the procedures for monitoring the requirements for the carrier, and as a result, we got a system that allows carriers to evade the fulfillment of their obligations to society, naively rely on the fact that the requirements will be met in the absence of real punishment for their violation. there is a problem - parking will appear only when the parking service is in demand by carriers, and it will be in demand only when the carrier is seriously and, most importantly, inevitably punished for violating work and rest regimes. "

According to surveys, if men are recommended to rest every 4 hours, then women should not spend more than 3 hours driving. At the same time, scientists have proven that breaks after every two hours spent driving are especially required by drivers who have less than 5 years of experience.

“It is impossible to say unequivocally how much a driver needs to rest in order to recover. There are too many factors: human personality, the cause of fatigue, the type of fatigue - in one case it is enough to take a half hour nap, in the other - a month in a sanatorium. the fight against fatigue, not elimination of the consequences, but prevention - proper nutrition, physical activity and adherence to the regime of work and rest "- says psychologist-consultant Olga Medvedeva.

Fatigue indicators

To understand how tired a person is, a simple test can be done. Under normal conditions, a person blinks 15 times a minute, the eye closes for 50 ms. With fatigue, a person blinks 60 times a minute, the time for which he closes his eye is 70 ms. As a result, it turns out that a tired person has eyes closed for 4.2 seconds per minute.

Problems also arise with the reaction. Normally, the reaction time is 0.23-0.3, in a state of fatigue it increases significantly. And after this, the braking distance and other important indicators for the driver increase.

Material prepared within

How the fatigue control system works

The creation of modern vehicles is accompanied by the introduction of functions aimed at the comfort of their use. Attention Assist and DAC - devices that control the degree of fatigue of the person sitting behind the wheel - have been developed and are being introduced by carmakers. They monitor the level of physical effort to control the unit, signal the need to stop for rest. And so how does the driver fatigue monitoring system work for different car manufacturers.

Basic parameters for organizing driver fatigue check

The process has a threefold level, depending on the conditions created.

The safety of the car is checked, the eyes of the driver are checked. For the last seven years, the automotive concern Mercedes-Benz, announcing various models, equips them with the Attention Assist installation, which is capable of monitoring the behavior of the person driving the vehicle. Driving operations, steering wheel application are recorded, car driving habits and other specific parameters characterizing the personality of the steering movement are analyzed.

General Motors, using Seeing Machines algorithms, has implemented it on trucks, wheeled vehicles on rail tracks, and uses it at developed open pit mining enterprises. The built-in special unit controls the state of the driver's eyes openness, their concentration on the movement, monitoring the condition of the road surface.

The Skoda Kodiak driver fatigue control system, for example, uses the indicators of the driver's steering wheel sensor, the pedal frequency recorder. The average values \u200b\u200bof a vigorous, attentive driver are applied. The difference between the actual results and those recorded as a sample indicates fatigue.

The applicable options can be used to control individual functions of the moving machine. Directionality of the eyes allows you to manipulate individual indicators on the control panel. Forgetfulness to look in the mirror when overtaking, turning will be corrected by the built-in reminder system of the need for this action.

According to statistics, one of the most common causes of car accidents is driver fatigue. Studies have shown that after four hours of driving, the reaction rate, as a rule, decreases by half, and already eight hours of driving show really catastrophic results - a sixfold slowdown in reaction. And since every automobile manufacturer has always strived to make its products as safe as possible, after the research carried out, active development of a special sensor began to determine the level of driver fatigue.

The innovators in this area can be considered the Japanese company Nissan, whose specialists, already in 1977, patented a truly revolutionary automotive technology. However, due to active work in other areas, the first working system of this kind was implemented only a few years later.

In fact, Swedish Volvo were the first to use the new technology in practice, installing a system called Driver Alert Control, which included a camera that monitors the behavior of the car on the road, as well as the sensor itself, which measures the frequency and manner of steering wheel movements. The system gave out certain signals when the indicators of steering movements deviated too much from the norm.

Driver Alert Control invites the tired driver to stop and take a break with a cup of coffee

Later, Mercedes joined the two automotive giants. The system has undergone some changes: it was decided to remove the video camera and add a sensor that reacted to the frequency and force of pressing the pedal. In addition, the system was supplemented with indicators that indicated certain norms. The sensors worked, giving a signal to stop when these indicators deviated to the maximum from normal. But such a system could not fit every driver. It was later changed somewhat. Sensors were also installed to sense wind from the side and to assess the quality of road surfaces. Also, sensors were added to determine the pressing of the radio buttons and climate control.

Similar systems are also used on Skoda and Volkswagen vehicles.

Today, the most common and are two types of system implementation. The first case involves a sensor measuring road behavior, which includes characteristics such as the force of pressing the brake and gas pedals, as well as the amplitude of the steering wheel movements. This type of system is used by Volkswagen, Mercedes, Volvo and Skoda.

If we talk about the Japanese segment of the market, then a slightly different method is used here. That is why most attention is paid to the psycho-emotional indicators of the vehicle driver himself. For control, a video camera is used here, which is designed to track the facial expressions and gestures of the driver. First of all, the system is configured to react when the eyes are closed by responding with a warning signal. It also analyzes how often the driver blinks, how deeply and measuredly he breathes, while recognizing when a person just blinks while driving, and when he closes his eyes.

In general, the system in both cases works in about the same way.

To begin with, the control unit collects and analyzes the information received from the cameras and sensors themselves. This approach is intended to significantly expand the capabilities of the system for recognizing existing conditions. After that, a certain driving style of each driver is analyzed and determined in order to subsequently adjust the system to individual parameters. Thus, the received data eventually becomes the established norm in the system.

In the future, the incoming information will be compared with predetermined values \u200b\u200bof the norms.

The timing of the initial measurement for each brand is purely individual. The whole procedure usually takes 15 to 30 minutes.

In the event of a deviation from normal values, the system gives a warning sound signal to the driver, notifying him to stop.

Statistics show that about a quarter of all accidents occur due to driver fatigue during a long trip. The studies carried out gave not very comforting results: after four hours of continuous driving, the driver's reactions slow down by half, and after eight - six times. Every automaker strives to make their cars as safe as possible, hence the first idea to develop a driver fatigue sensor that could detect the degree of fatigue and signal the need to take a rest stop.

How did the driver fatigue monitoring system come about?

The first company to seriously implement a driver fatigue monitoring system was the Japanese firm Nissan. She began her research in the 70s of the last century, and in 1977 the company patented the results of the work of its engineers. Interest in simpler, but no less important safety systems, namely ABS, ESP and EBD, became a temporary obstacle to further work. As a result, the first driver fatigue control system appeared on the car almost thirty years later, when the work of other systems only needed to be improved.

The first company that managed to implement all engineering surveys in practice was the Swedish company Volvo. Its system was named Driver Alert Control. It includes a video camera that monitors the vehicle's position on the road and its trajectory, and a sensor that registers the frequency of steering movements. When the car begins to deviate strongly from the normal trajectory, the system "suggests" to stop and rest.

Later, a similar fatigue recognition system was developed by Mercedes. The Germans decided not to use a camera, leaving only a steering wheel sensor and a sensor that registers the strength and frequency of cadence. The system control unit contains information about what average indicators should be if a vigorous and attentive driver is behind the wheel. If the current values \u200b\u200bdiffer significantly from the reference values, then the driver is tired. The disadvantage of the system is that it works according to presets, i.e. does not take into account the characteristics of a particular person. In later versions of the systems, the frequency of pressing the buttons for the climate control and radio tape recorder is also analyzed, as well as external conditions - the strength of the side wind and the quality of the road surface. This allowed the system to adapt to the specific driver.

Similar systems are used on Volkswagen and Skoda vehicles. On Skoda Octavia cars, it is installed only as an option, regardless of the configuration, while the Passat has it as standard, starting with the Comfortline configuration.

System implementation methods

There are two ways to implement this function. In the first case, a special sensor registers only the parameters of the vehicle's movement, namely the frequency and amplitude of the steering movements, pressing the gas and brake pedals. The adherents of this option are European manufacturers: Mercedes, Volkswagen, Skoda, Volvo.

Japanese firms are looking to implement driver fatigue control in a slightly different way. They are convinced that, first of all, it is necessary to analyze the psycho-emotional state. Therefore, the main link of such a system is a video camera, the task of which is to monitor the facial expressions and gestures of the person sitting behind the wheel. It works as follows. The driver's fatigue recognition system reacts primarily to closed eyes. If the driver closes his eyes, the system immediately issues a warning signal. Engineers are faced with the task of “teaching” it to distinguish it when the driver just blinks and when he falls asleep. In addition, the frequency of blinking, eye movements, facial expressions, gestures, frequency and depth of breathing (according to the movements of the chest) are analyzed.

How Driver Fatigue Monitoring Works

In general, regardless of the implementation method, the driver fatigue control works as follows. At first, the control unit collects and analyzes all the information coming from sensors and video cameras. As a result, the system determines the driver's driving style and external conditions (time of day, road conditions, wind). This data becomes a reference, in the future, the incoming information is compared with the available one, for timely recognition of driver fatigue.

Different cars take different times for the initial data collection, for example, the Mercedes SLK does it in half an hour, the Volkswagen Passat and the Skoda Octavia are limited to 15 minutes.

This approach greatly expands the capabilities of the recognition system, since driver fatigue is monitored not according to some template, but the indicators of a particular person sitting behind the wheel are taken as the initial data.

All vehicle drivers know that it is not always possible to get behind the wheel fully rested and slept, fully functional.

At the same time, almost everyone who is faced with overwork understands that in a tired state the driver cannot adequately react and make the right decisions. A tired and painful state can be compared with the state of a driver who has consumed alcoholic beverages, and in this case there is no need to talk about road safety.

An airplane pilot, a dispatcher, a person operating a nuclear reactor, are never allowed to work without a medical examination, at the same time, many of us forget that a car driver is equated to this category, since he controls a source of increased danger to others.

According to clause 2.7 of the Road Traffic Regulations “The driver is prohibited from driving in a sick or tired state”.

If the driver is able to fatigue, the level of traffic safety is significantly reduced - fatiguenegatively affects almost all the basic functions of human perception, as well as some psychophysiological characteristics.

First of all, visual perception suffers: a tired driver sees less distant or small objects on the road, cannot accurately determine the distance to one or another object or estimate the speed of movement of other road users. But not only the quality of perception is deteriorating - fatiguein the most negative way affects its organization: a tired person more slowly switches attention from one object to another. The driver who drives the car is able to fatigue, longer than usual, concentrates attention on individual objects encountered by him, and reacts more slowly to sudden changes in the situation on the road.

Fatigueit can also negatively affect a person's memory - many drivers noticed that at the end of a long trip, they spend much more time not only on signal detection, but also on its assessment, that is, on processing the information received. In phase fatiguea person usually shows two types of undesirable reactions - both overly slow and too fast.

Usually fatiguedevelops during long journeys behind the wheel and reveals itself already at 4-5 hours of driving. In another couple of hours fatiguebegins to be felt clearly, and drivers who have been driving for more than 9 hours maintain their physical tone exclusively by their own volitional efforts.

If a working capacity the driver falls sharply (this, as a rule, occurs during long, many hours of driving), the risk of a traffic accident increases significantly.

The driver, feeling drowsy, can overcome it for some time and drive the car quite reliably, but he must know that falling asleep can come suddenly and he may not notice this moment, which poses a very serious threat to road safety. Therefore, if you have drowsiness while driving, then you should not fight it on the go. You need to stop and sleep for a short time or do gymnastic exercises. Only after relieving drowsiness can you continue the journey.

A characteristic sign of the onset of fatigue can be the appearance of seemingly insignificant erroneous actions: scattered attention, a desire to straighten up, change a posture. With such signs of fatigue, you must immediately stop moving. The first signs of fatigue that appear after several hours of driving are not dangerous for the driver and can be easily eliminated with a short rest. It has been proven that with the same rest time, several short breaks are significantly more effective than one long break.

The "risk group" among drivers are, as a rule, drivers engaged in passenger, intercity and international transport, as well as drivers of heavy vehicles.

Dear drivers! Fatigue or sickness while driving can lead to a serious traffic accident. You should not rush to come home and rest, as such actions can lead to irreparable consequences. The best solution in such a situation would be a short rest on the way!

OGIBDD propaganda department.