Work-related accidents, sleepiness

Damien Leger developed a special report for the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research (NCSDR). He estimated that the total cost of accidents attributable to sleepiness in 1988 was between 43.15 billion and 56.02 billion dollars (5). He reported that in 1988, the costs of all motor vehicle accidents ( 70.2 billion), work-related accidents ( 47.1 billion), home-based accidents ( 17.4 billion), and public accidents ( 10.9 billion) were 143.4 billion. Any duplications between work-related and motor-vehicle accidents and home-based and motor-vehicle accidents were eliminated in the total by the author. Thus, the total amount was less than the sums. 

B. Cost of Work-related Accidents Caused by Sleepiness... 

In 1988, the total cost of work-related accidents of 47.1 billion was based on 10,600 deaths and 1,800,000 disabling injuries. Included in the estimate of work-related accidents attributable to sleepiness were (a) motor-vehicle accidents due to shift work and on-the-job motor vehicle accidents (35.0% of total work-related accidents), (b) falls during work caused by sleepiness or inattention (12.6%), and (c) water and transportation accidents (4.8%). Therefore, of all work-related accidents, about 52.5% might potentially be related to sleepiness and then, accounting for 5565 fatalities and 945,000 disabling injuries, resulted in a cost of 24.7 billion. 

For the lower estimate, Leger assumed that the same proportion of injuries and fatalities resulted from maximum sleepiness-induced work-related accidents... 

Gold, D. R., et al.. Rotating Shift Work, Sleep, and Accidents Related to Sleepiness in Hospital Nurses, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 82, No. 7, 1992, pp. 1011-1014. 

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