§ Mr. PawseyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer of 17 January,Official Report, column 656, on research undertaken into accidents 557W caused by motorists falling asleep, whether any of the research has been funded or commissioned by Her Majesty's Government; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ChopeThe Loughborough study was not funded by the Government.
The Welsh Office however has funded a study by Bangor university of driver fatigue, the report of which, "The Long-Distance Driver", was published in 1990.
Driver fatigue was one of the elements of the extensive programme of accident causation studies carried out by the Department's Transport and Road Research Laboratory during the 1970s and early 1980s.
In order to assess future research needs, my Department has commissioned a further review of research from the medical commission on accident prevention at the Royal College of Surgeons.