CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, about 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes (World Health Organization WHO 2009). Without sustained action, road traffic crashes are predicted to become the leading cause of death by 2030, including among the growing population of senior drivers. 10 – 20% of all traffic accidents are made by non-vigilant drivers and 60% of these accidents are due to fatigue (Awake Consortium 2001).
According to Wheaton et al (2013) drowsy driving is a major problem in the United States. The risk, danger, and often tragic results of drowsy driving are alarming. Drowsy driving is the dangerous combination of driving and sleepiness or fatigue. This usually happens when a driver has not slept enough, but it can also happen due to untreated sleep disorders, medications, drinking alcohol, or shift work.
Approximately 20% of driving accidents are attributable to inadequate sleep such as occurs in persons with obstructive sleep apnea (Atubi, 2012). In Nigeria, it is estimated that over 90% of Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) are due to driver error (Atubi, 2012). Multiple factors contributing to the risk of Road Traffic Accidents among long distance truck drivers in Nigeria include daytime sleepiness, fatigue and stimulant use. According to Ndujihe, Esekhile (2018) of Vanguard Newspaper reported that, (NBS 2018) the number of lives lost to road traffic accidents from January 2013 to June 2018 are as follows: 2013 – 5,539; 2014 – 4,430; 2015 – 5,400; (FRSC 2018): 2016 – 5,053; 2017 – 5,049 and January to June, 2018 – 2,623. Studies have shown that commercial bus drivers with undiagnosed and OSA are at increased risk of Road Traffic Accidents (Atubi, 2012). Obaseki et al (2014) report that studies in Nigeria have suggested that obstructive sleep apnea syndrome may be largely under recognized. This is attributed to the fact that high prevalence of snoring and daytime sleepiness has been observed in subsets of the population which infers that the burden and cost of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may be substantial in developing societies especially in costs due to motor crashes and fatalities.
Wheaton et al (2013) affirm that no one knows the exact moment when sleep comes over their body. Falling asleep at the wheel is clearly dangerous, but being sleepy affects your ability to drive safely even if you don’t fall asleep. Drowsiness makes drivers less able to pay attention to the road., slows reaction time if you have to brake or steer suddenly and affects a driver’s ability to make good decisions.
According to National Sleep Foundation (2019), drowsy driving is dangerous because sleep deprivation can have similar effects on the human body as high illegal concentration of alcohol. A driver who has been awake for 18 hours’ straight drives like one who has a blood alcohol level of 0.05 and If one has been awake for a full 24 hours and drives after a night, where one couldn’t fall asleep then, may likely have a blood alcohol level of 0.10. Alcohol breath machines are used by road driving law enforcement agencies to detect if a driver has been drinking while driving. This is done so that defaulting drivers can be detected and stopped in time before causing an accident Both drowsy driving and drunk driving make it hard to pay attention to the road, and negatively impact how well you can make fast decisions. But as similar as they are, drowsy driving and drunk driving don’t always look the same on the road. A drunk driver can often drive slowly and try to react, but a drowsy driver can nod off while still going fast. So, drowsy drivers don't always brake or swerve if something happens in front of them (National Sleep Foundation, 2019)
According to National Sleep Foundation (2019), signs of drowsy driving include, trouble focusing, heavy eyelids, inability to remember the last stretch of road that you just drove, yawning constantly, bobbing your head, and drifting from your lane. If any sign of drowsiness is detected while one is driving, one has to pull over and take a 20-minute nap or buy a cup of caffeinated coffee to help keep them alert. If there is someone else in the car, then a switch of drivers is recommended. Also, one should drive during their most alert period of the day (like in the morning, instead of late at night). Taking these simple precautions will help lower a driver’s risk and stress level during a road trip.
The Hazardous effect associated with driver drowsiness on steering has led to many deaths in ghastly motor accident and in many cases put both divers, passengers and even passer-by to hopeless situation for life. There are also cases of damaged vehicles that are beyond repaired and even destruction of public infrastructure like electric poles, homes, farmlands etc. There are research efforts deployed in developed world to address this problem of road traffic crashes caused by drowsy driving, the solution focused on the use of sensors and cameras installed in the vehicle but that they are not appropriate due to some external factors such as weather, bumpy roads, lighting changes, dirty lenses, improperly mounted cameras, and many other real-world less-than-ideal driving situations and researchers do not take into consideration the use of a cameraless system especially for third world countries where facilities and equipment such as these will be difficult to implement due to lack of funds.
Driving and commuting are central to our daily lives. We rely on them for mobility to keep in touch with friends, relatives and associates; and to have our goods and services delivered to desired destinations. Driving also brings problems such as traffic congestion, pollution and accidents. Over the last decade, ICT has totally redefined how we live, work, relax, play, learn, travel. how we drive and virtually do everything. This feat has been heightened by the proliferation of internet technologies especially its web component. The spate of advancement in this regard gives very promising prospects for the sanitization of the road transport sector within a developing economy like Nigeria.
In many developing economies including Nigeria, various factors ranging from corruption to policy non-sustainability have been blamed for the backwardness and slow adoption of ICTs in general, and its application to road safety and accident prevention, in particular. The good news however is that this backwardness shall not be for too long, as advanced Technologies are globally being applied to many transportation problems. ICTs’ adoption in optimizing road safety and rescue operations are helping to achieve this ambition of a drastic reduction in road deaths.
Generally, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is the fusion of Telecommunications, Electronics and Computer Information Systems used to retrieve, analyze, store, process, transmit, secure and intelligently interpret digital data either in storage or in transit. This fusion has so many segments including digital storage, Database Management Systems (DBMS), networking, data security, fibre optics transmission, VSAT connectivity, WiMAX networks, mobile electronics, plasma sensitivity, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), disaster recovery, software engineering and most importantly the internet and its web component (Okereafor 2011).
ICT has led to the application of Road safety and accident prevention Technology to facilitate safe mobility, promote easier dissemination of road traffic information, ensure comfortable manipulation of road machineries, improve the efficiency of road traffic signs/alerts, promote mass awareness of safety consciousness, facilitate more effective rescue operations and improve the monitoring of the changing conditions of roads and machineries. ICT in road safety technologies is usually applied through the collation, storage, analysis and processing of vital electronic data including: weather readings, accident location co-ordinates, precise remote traffic light adjustment, warning thresholds, speed chart, driver alertness, and other data attributes. As a result of the remarkable impact of ICTs in all aspects of daily lives, the term “road safety technology” has come to be loosely synonymous to ICT-based initiatives applied to all aspects of road safety operations including vehicular Electronic Stability Control (ESC).
In Nigeria, there have been no evident of using computer technology to address this. Some of these occurrences are due to drivers not getting adequate sleep before getting on steering, no ICT enable system to access driver’s alertness on the fly and compliance to traffic rule such as monitoring his lane. No real time reporting system on driver’s recklessness on the way to appropriate authority. To contribute to this knowledge gap, the work will be focused on drowsiness detection techniques to develop a system that will include modules that will address the aforementioned lapses to reduce the rate of preventable death of commuters due to drowsiness of drivers.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Nigeria is ranked second-highest in the rate of road accidents among 193 countries of the world (Agbonkhese et al, 2013). Aside from the Boko Haram terrorist crisis, accidents are currently by far the main cause of violent death in Nigeria (Oladepo & Brieger, 2006). The WHO adjudged Nigeria the most dangerous country in Africa with 33.7 deaths per 100,000 populations every year (WHO, 2013). According to their report, one in every four road accident deaths in Africa occurs in Nigeria. The WHO survey and the FRSC report of 5,693 fatal road accidents in 2009 leave no doubt about the dangerous situation on Nigerian roads.
According to Ndujihe, Esekhile (2018) of Vanguard Newspaper reported that, (NBS 2018) the number of lives lost to road traffic accidents from January 2013 to June 2018 are as follows: 2013 – 5,539; 2014 – 4,430; 2015 – 5,400; (FRSC 2018): 2016 – 5,053; 2017 – 5,049; January to June, 2018 – 2,623.
Therefore, there is a need to develop an automated solution that can keep a check of driver’s condition for drowsiness and alert the driver before an accident occurs, measure drivers on the move drowsiness level, keep them alive on steering and report such frequency of occurrences that will significantly help reduce the high incident due to drowsiness.
However, One of the challenges in developing an efficient drowsiness detection system is how to obtain proper drowsiness data which are related to, a lot of times the driver cannot be seen while he/she is on the wheel and so they cannot be alerted to the fact that they are asleep, in the case that the driver is alone, there is no passenger around to warn him or her that they are falling asleep, there are not enough traffic law enforcement agents to be stationed at every point on the roads in the city for the purpose of monitoring cases of sleepy drivers, the case of sleep driving can lead to otherwise avoidable accidents which can be harmful to road users and most drivers are unaware of their state of being when they begin to get drowsy and usually sleep off on the steering wheel.
1.3 Aims and Objectives of the Study
This work is aimed at developing Drowsiness Detection System that will constantly warn/alert the driver thereby reducing the likelihood of road traffic accidents due to drowsiness.
To achieve this aim, this research will be guided by the following objectives:
- To design the system to employ the use of voice recognition software that will be used to collect audio input from the user to test for their drowsiness level.
- To design a system that will test the driver’s drowsiness level by periodically asking the driver questions while they are on the road
- To create the system to trigger an alarm system in the case that the driver fails to provide the audio response to the questioned prompted by the automated system.
- To develop an automated solution that will measure drivers on the move drowsiness level, keep them alive on steering and report such frequency of occurrences that will significantly help reduce the high incident due to drowsiness. Besides, when drivers know that their attitude on steering is monitored and could affect their decision on license renewal, their attitude toward drowsiness will be reduced and stay focused on the steering.
