The Heavy Vehicle Study: a case-control study investigating risk factors for crash in long distance heavy vehicle drivers in Australia

The proposed case control study will recruit 1034 long distance heavy vehicle drivers: 517 who have crashed and 517 who have not. All participants will be interviewed at length, regarding their driving and crash history, typical workloads, scheduling and payment, trip history over several days, sleep patterns, health, and substance use. All participants will have administered a nasal flow monitor for the detection of obstructive sleep apnoea.Significant attention has been paid to the enforcement of legislation aiming to deter problems such as excess loading, speeding and substance use; however, there is inconclusive evidence as to the direction and strength of associations of many other postulated risk factors for heavy vehicle crashes. The influence of factors such as remuneration and scheduling on crash risk is unclear; so too the association between sleep apnoea and the risk of heavy vehicle driver crash. Contributory factors such as sleep quality and quantity, body mass and health status will be investigated. Quantifying the measure of effect of these factors on the heavy vehicle driver will inform policy development that aims toward safer driving practices and reduction in heavy vehicle crash; protecting the lives of many on the road network.There is a significant growth in heavy vehicle transportation across the road network not only in high-income countries [1] but also in many developing and newly industrialised countries as a consequence of the rapid, export oriented economic growth [2]. China for example, is observing an annual increase of 466,000 heavy vehicles on their roads [3]. Already the contribution of heavy vehicle crashes to road-related deaths is substantial. In Australia for example, heavy vehicle crashes are responsible for as much as 20% of the total road-related deaths [1,4] whilst in the United States, approximately 15% of road related fatal crashes involve heavy vehicles [5]. Similar rates are reported in the European Union [6]. With high c