Commercial truck accidents are serious due to the size, weight and speed of these large vehicles. The Federal Motor Carrier Administration’s (FCMSA) Large Truck Crash Study revealed that 50% of such accidents result in fatal or incapacitating injuries. The truck driver was judged to be at fault in 87% of these crashes, and in 7% of cases the driver admitted to having fallen asleep while driving. Truck accidents result in over 5200 deaths annually and more than 125,000 injuries proving that sleep apnea and commercial drivers are a deadly combination. These figures are likely the tip of the iceberg regarding the total number of truck crashes due to driver fatigue. The prevalence of sleep apnea and commercial drivers is believed to be between 17% to 28%. Given that there are roughly 14 million commercial drivers license holders in the United States, somewhere between 2.4 and 3.9 million of these drivers are expected to be affected by OSA.
Unfortunately, OSA often remains unrecognized or unreported by professional drivers and their employers, as well as undiagnosed by physicians. OSA has been shown to significantly increase a driver’s likelihood of driving drowsy. Medical research demonstrates that undiagnosed sleep apnea and commercial drivers have an increased risk for falling asleep while driving and increases the possibility of an individual developing health issues such as hypertension, stroke, ischemic heart disease, and mood disorders.