Long-haul truck drivers who use coffee and other caffeine sources are significantly less likely to have an accident than drivers who don’t indulge in caffeine.
Australian researchers looked at data on over 500 truck drivers who were recently involved in a crash, comparing them another group of over 500 truck drivers who had not had an accident within the past year. All of these drivers were driving tractor units with one, two, or three trailers.
The researchers interviewed all the drivers, gathering information about various health and lifestyle factors, including caffeine consumption over the past month. Their study was published online in BMJ (British Medical Journal).
After adjusting for age, driver experience, distance driven, hours of sleep, naps, night driving, and other factors, they found that drivers who consumed caffeine were almost 65 percent less likely to have been involved in a crash.
The conclusion? According to the lead author, Lisa N. Sharwood, a research fellow at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, Australia, caffeine is obviously useful as part of a strategy to greatly reduce the occurrence of accidents on the road.
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You are correct Mr. Weinberg. I am an otr (over-the-road) truckdriver, and have been for over 21 years. When you are behind the wheel of a semi you have to have it all together mentally. Caffeine really does help with that that. Your mental “area awareness” has to cover a much wider amount of roadway and sheer acreage, including vast areas that are in your blindspots. Whether backing up or driving forward down the highway, you have to be aware of people and cars that have dipped into your blindspots, and while keeping track of all the ones currently in your field of vision, be cognisant of when they have come back out of the first blindspot, and perhaps passed quickly into another. All this and more has to be juggled quickly in your mind. Caffeine helps make that happen more effectively.
Fascinating! Thanks very much for your comment.