33% of road fatalities linked to sleep deprivation

CAIRO – 1 May 2018: Sleep deprivation is reported to be linked to 33 percent of road accidents in Egypt, the Transportation Ministry announced on Monday.

Under the framework of the Ministry of Transportation’s nation-wide strategy to curb road accidents in Egypt, the ministry organized a symposium to raise awareness of the dangers of driving without adequate sleep.

The symposium was held in coordination with Cairo’s Center for Neurology and Sleep Medicine and saw the attendance of representatives from all of the Transportation Ministry’s sectors and bodies. It aimed at exploring the human factor element that contributes to the increase of road accidents in the country.

During the seminar, the participants focused on the importance of good sleep habits to eschew motor vehicle accidents, stressing that lack of sleep and related disorders adversely affect a driver’s ability to pay attention to traffic and thus result in road fatalities.

In a recent study conducted by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), 5,836 road accidents were recorded in the first half of 2017, compared to 7,101 accidents recorded in the same period of the preceding year.

The report further said that human error is the leading cause of vehicle accidents, followed by poor condition of vehicles.

Annually, about 12,000 lives perish due to road accidents in Egypt, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

According to the recently published WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety, though there are laws on speed, blood alcohol concentration for the general population, seat-belt wearing and helmet wearing, they are poorly enforced.

In October 2016, Minster of Transportation Hesham Arafat said that Egypt is ranked 48th among countries around the world having the highest numbers of road accidents.