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Mrs. Linda Riordan (Halifax) (Lab): May I urge the Minister to seize the opportunity provided by the Road Safety Bill to address the problems of unidentified and untreated sleep disorders among drivers, as a means of improving road safety? The hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) mentioned this issue earlier. The Bill, and the Department for Transport's "Tiredness kills" campaign, include welcome measures—the Secretary of State mentioned picnic areas—to address the problem of sleepiness in tired but otherwise healthy drivers.
However, those measures fail to educate or regulate the estimated 4 per cent. of the middle-aged population who suffer from the sleep disorder known as sleep apnoea, and who might be unaware that they have a medical condition, as such conditions are not checked for under the present licensing system. Sufferers of obstructive sleep apnoea have been shown to have a worse driving performance than healthy drivers who are over the alcohol limit.
A case study from the Sleep Apnoea Trust illustrates the problem. It states:
"For many years prior to my car accident there were periods during the day when I felt utterly exhausted. Unknown to me I was experiencing poor quality sleep every night and to an extent it was affecting my whole life. My ability to concentrate was poor. In August 1997 we had been out walking in the morning, had a light lunch (no alcohol), a further walk in the afternoon, and I was driving home when I apparently dozed off and next thing was that we hit a tree at about 60 mph. Fortunately, neither I nor my wife was seriously injured, although I was taken by ambulance to hospital with an aggravated spinal complaint.
The car following me up the hill was being driven by an off duty traffic policeman on holiday. Being first on the scene he checked for alcohol then asked several questions from which I subsequently realised (after diagnosis with sleep apnoea) that he was obviously familiar with the condition. Previous visits to my GP had not revealed anything untoward, it was put down to long and irregular hours (I suspect more than likely the general lack of understanding of the Sleep Apnoea condition)."
The prevalence of sleep disorders is significant and growing. As obesity is a contributory factor to OSA, the incidence of the disorder is likely to increase. The largest British survey to date of drivers of heavy goods vehicles studied 900 drivers over two years and found that one in six had severe OSA. It also found that one in three HGV drivers had moderate OSA. Awareness of sleep disorders among members of the public, drivers and employers of professional drivers is unacceptably low.
Julie Morgan (Cardiff, North) (Lab): I congratulate my hon. Friend on her work as chair of the all-party group on sleep disorders. This is an important issue. Does she agree that many drivers would hesitate to report the fact that they suffered from drowsiness because they would be afraid of losing their licence? They are probably not aware that this is a curable disease. Should not the Department for Transport and the Department of Health work together to publicise these issues?
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst):
Order. I am obliged to say to the hon. Lady that she really needs to direct her remarks to what might, in her view, be in
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the Bill that we are discussing. We cannot have a general discussion about sleep disorders. That would be more appropriate for another occasion, perhaps even an Adjournment debate. She must somehow relate what she is saying to the Bill, and not just by vaguely alluding to the fact that sleep disorders may cause road accidents. She must propose what might be done in the Bill to address the issue.
Mrs. Riordan: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker; I do beg your pardon. I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. I will cover the point that she raised later in my speech, as well as outlining what I would like to see in the Bill.
As I was saying, awareness of sleep disorders among members of the public, drivers and employers of professional drivers is unacceptably low, given the associated risks. Indeed, the Department is well aware of that. In 2004, an expert workshop convened by the Department for Transport on driving and medical aspects of excessive daytime sleepiness concluded:
"The key issue was how to address the undiagnosed, but potentially high-risk, driver with a sleep disorder . . . The major focus should be on identifying and treating unrecognised patients rather than just addressing the issue of driving in those already known to have OSA".
I am concerned that from the answers to parliamentary questions that I tabled in the autumn, it would appear that the DFT has not undertaken research into the medical status of individuals involved in sleep-related traffic accidents, nor kept a record of the number of accidents where a sleep disorder was a contributory factor. That suggests a fundamental gap.
Tom Brake : I hope it will be a helpful intervention if I suggest that sleep disorders are the sort of thing that the road accidents investigation board, which could form part of the Bill, could investigate.
Mrs. Riordan: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention and agree with him.
Additionally, the licensing system needs to be more robust. Research undertaken by the Institute of Advanced Motorists and published in February 2006 found low awareness of the effects of medical conditions upon driving among occupational drivers and their employers. In a survey of 1,000 drivers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, seven out of 10 said that their employers neither offer nor require medical check-ups. It is also worth noting that although the symptoms of sleep disorders can be managed cheaply and effectively, enabling most drivers to return safely to driving, there is a failure to provide those medical services, which results in a disincentive to report to the DVLA.
Mark Hunter (Cheadle) (LD):
The hon. Lady has raised a number of important points, but the key is surely that the Bill does nothing to address concerns about driver sleepiness as a result of the sleep disorders to which she has referred. Would the hon. Lady agree that a major disadvantage of the Bill is that it does not envisage strengthening the process of awarding licences or reviewing medical fitness to drive? Would she also agree that those issues need to be considered by the Department for Transport and that a regular review of medical fitness is required to deal with the problem?
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Mr. Deputy Speaker: Order. Both the hon. Members for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) and for Cheadle (Mark Hunter) have nobly tried to help the hon. Lady bridge the gap between the notes that she has prepared and the content of the Bill. I must urge her to take the escape route that is being offered to her in order to come to the point directly.
Mrs. Riordan: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.
I agree with the hon. Gentleman, and I am asking the Minister to work more with other Departments to bridge the gaps so that drivers can feel safe to have medical checks and continue to drive.
It must be communicated to drivers who experience persistent sleepiness that in addition to the short-term measures outlined in the Bill, such as stopping at a safe rest area or drinking a high caffeine drink such as coffee, they may need to seek medical help to establish whether their sleepiness derives from a sleep disorder.
Secondly, the Department should take steps to inform drivers about sleep disorders and their responsibility to report any concerns they may have over their medical fitness to drive. The processes of awarding a driving licence and reviewing fitness to drive should be strengthened to increase the likelihood of sleep disorders being identified in drivers. Lastly, the DFT should collaborate with the Department of Health to ensure the speedy diagnosis and treatment of drivers with sleep disorders to help to remove the existing disincentive to report symptoms or to seek medical health.
5.4 pm
Mr. Mark Harper (Forest of Dean) (Con): When the Secretary of State opened the debate he pointed out that the national road safety figures were improving, which is welcome—but, unfortunately, in my constituency they are doing anything but that. Last year there were 20 road fatalities—about four times the national average—and this year, sadly, there have already been four deaths. It is only March, yet we are already approaching the national yearly average, so it would be gratifying if the number did not increase at all this year.
There is a mixture of reasons for those accidents. The coroner has not yet reported on many cases so we cannot talk about them, but in one accident involving young drivers the report has been made and the cause was drink-related excessive speed. My constituents were affected particularly by the prevalence of multiple fatalities, especially of younger drivers, and I shall discuss some of the remedies to prevent such accidents.
One good thing that came out of those tragedies was the good response of the local community. Mike Webb and Jimmy Martin, driving instructors and members of the Forest and Wye Valley Driving Instructors Association, have put together, in their own time, an excellent presentation, which they have been taking to schools in the area, to get through to youngsters the importance of safe and careful driving, to try to save lives. They have been working with the fire and rescue service, the police and the county council's road safety team.
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I am pleased that the county council has targeted highway improvements in its budget plans for future years, to ensure that our roads are safer. Local authorities will be bidding for road safety grants from the Department for Transport and it is worth noting that there are some straightforward physical changes that can be made, especially in rural areas—for example, the proper installation of road drainage. In Gloucestershire county council's new contract, drainage will be a key performance indicator. It is important to make sure that there is no surface water on roads, as it appears to have been a factor in at least one of the casualties last year.
The Secretary of State mentioned the number of accidents that do not involve another vehicle. In my rural constituency, a number of fatalities occur when people lose control of their vehicle and hit a sizeable roadside tree. The county council is looking into the idea of cutting back trees, which will have several benefits. It will improve visibility, reduce ice cover—because the road will not be in shade—allow boundary features and road signs to be more visible, and provide more space for horse riders to get off the road if necessary. Neither measure—proper road cleaning or control of vegetation—would cost much. When we consider the financial costs of a road fatality, quite apart from anything else, such investment is sensible.
The Bill includes proposals for road safety grants, for which local authorities will bid and which the Department will award based on the road casualty figures and the quality of the local authority's casualty reduction plan. I welcome the proposal for the grants. My only plea to the Minister is that the application and assessment process should not be painful for local authorities, or require huge amounts of bureaucracy. Furthermore, given the variety of road safety performance and geographical area, as well as the nature of the road network, there should be significant local flexibility when assessing casualty reduction plans. After all, local people have a much better idea of what needs to be done to improve road safety in their area.
The hon. Member for Northampton, North (Ms Keeble) touched on the statistics about young drivers, noting that young men account for only about 4 per cent. of the driving population, but for more than 30 per cent. of dangerous driving convictions. It is clear from the various meetings that we had following road accidents in my constituency, with young drivers in particular, that we need to do more than provide education and training in the theory and practice of driving. We should bear in mind the attitudes that young males bring to driving. For one thing, they think that they are invincible; unfortunately, when they discover that they are not it is often too late, and they, or others, pay the price. There are also societal factors. Young men are influenced by, for instance, magazines that emphasise the attractiveness of speed. We need to combat such influences.
I am trying to persuade the emergency and education services in Gloucestershire to adopt a scheme that has been successful in Surrey, called Safe Drive Stay Alive. It was the idea of a Surrey firefighter, Rob Green, who was the victim of an accident caused by a speeding uninsured young driver. The Bill may help to prevent such accidents. The driver hit Rob Green and his wife when they were travelling on a motor cycle. Sadly, Mrs. Green was killed, and her husband lost both legs
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and suffered severe burns. When he returned to work, he developed the idea of a touring performance for young people approaching, and reaching, the legal driving age of 17. The first event was staged in Dorking. Groups of sixth-formers were bussed to a venue several times a day to see a production involving a filmed reconstruction of a genuine road accident in which a young person had been killed and others severely injured. The film used all the emergency services, and was shockingly realistic. I viewed it on a DVD with which I was supplied.
Following the screening, the audience was addressed by the emergency service personnel who had been involved in the original accident: the firefighter who cut the passengers free, the paramedic who was first on the scene, the doctor who pronounced the young person dead, the policeman who had to visit her parents, and the victim of another road accident who had ended up confined to a wheelchair. Apparently, the effect on the audience was profound. Subsequent research confirmed that the event had changed the young people's attitudes to driving, and made a noticeable difference to the way in which they conducted themselves.
As I have said, I am encouraging the relevant authorities in Gloucestershire to adopt that idea. I should like the Minister to think about it as well. If such programmes are bid for as part of the road safety grant arrangements, he may consider it appropriate to fund them.
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