When the driver is involved in the processing of the message his attention resources are depleted.

• In the last few years, a significant increase in accidents involving fatigue and drowsiness of drivers.

Approximately 90% of a driver’s information about the current traffic situation is provided by eyesight. However, only about 1.5 angular degrees for which the vision mechanism is responsible. Caused by an inappropriate allocation of attention causes up to 25% of road accidents.

The lack of attention while driving can lead to severe accidents in traffic, which can involve people with serious injuries or even fatalities. “According to the World Health Organization, nearly 1.35 million people die every year due to traffic accidents, in which more than half are pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.”

“In particular, according to the Brazilian Association for Traffic Medicine related that sleepiness is the major cause of traffic accidents, around 42% of the occurrences.” Excessive consumption of alcohol and fatigue can be related to sleepiness while driving, and also young people and men present drowsiness leading to bigger risks of accidents.

As reported by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, one of the leading causes of traffic crashes is distracted driving. Distraction-affected crashes included 8 percent of fatal crashes and 15 percent of injury crashes in 2018.

Many factors can affect drivers’ attention, like using a cell phone, interacting with In-vehicle Information Systems, using a music player, eating, drinking, adjusting hair, and checking makeup. Therefore, regarding the tasks drivers perform, they can become manually, visually, and mentally distracted.

Cognitive distraction takes place when drivers think about something unrelated to their vehicle control duties like daydreaming, or just becoming lost in thought. Any type of these distractions can have an impact on drivers’ performance independently or in combination with other forms of distractions.

 

• Road accidents can be caused when the driver’s attention is distracted by non-driving content that leads to looking without seeing.

Some studies concluded that the performance of distracted drivers can increase the crash risk by rising the braking frequency and braking responses. The lack of attention of a driver that occurs due to distraction is characterized by their choice to involve in a secondary task that is not necessary to guide a vehicle.

It happens because of inattention, which is the failure of paying attention or notice something or some situation. A driver is inattentive when at any point in time a driver engages in a secondary task, exhibits symptoms of moderate to severe drowsiness, or looks away from the roadway ahead.

A loss of attention, when caused by fatigue, can happen due to a combination of conditions such as drowsiness and compromised performance. In this sense, fatigue detection is more complicated to be performed, since it has different types of definitions, such as physical fatigue, central nervous system fatigue, and mental fatigue.

For each of these types, there are one or more attention criteria to be considered by the detection system. Such as yawning and blinking ratio, slow reaction, irritability, confusion, head movement, etc. The incidence of inattention in drivers usually can be influenced by external or internal factors.

The former can include any movement on the streets, pedestrians, vehicular sound systems, passengers inside the vehicle, cellphones, or other conditions unrelated to the driver. The latter is related to the physiological situation, which can be altered due to fatigue, medication, or any other condition, such as disturbs the concentration of the driver while conducting the vehicle.