A fatigued worker behind the wheel – Freepik
Thousands of workers get behind the wheel every day, delivering, driving, or commuting between sites. For some, that drive becomes their last. Even with better vehicles and stricter rules, driving is still one of the most dangerous parts of the job.
In 2023, transportation-related incidents killed 1,942 workers, nearly 37 percent of all workplace fatalities, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even with better technology and compliance systems, the fatality rate remains stuck at 3.5 per 100,000 full-time workers.
What’s driving these deaths? It’s not just driver error. Stress, lack of sleep, and chronic burnout raise the risk, and most employers still treat it as unavoidable.
This article outlines the occupational roles most affected, the hidden drivers behind the wheel, and the employer-led interventions that can reduce transportation-related fatalities.
Who Faces the Greatest Risk Behind the Wheel?
Transportation-related deaths consistently occur in high-risk industries where systemic factors like long hours, mobile roles, and chronic stress converge.
Take, for example, a highway construction worker driving home after a 12-hour shift. Halfway through his commute, fatigue takes over, and he misses a curve, crashes into a guardrail, and ends up hospitalized. It’s not recklessness; it’s exhaustion compounded by overwork.
High-Risk Labor and Transport Roles
These jobs demand early mornings, long solo drives, and exhausting labor, making it harder for workers to stay alert and drive safely.
- Transportation and material moving: 1,011 deaths
- Construction workers: 243 deaths
- Farming, fishing, and forestry: 87 deaths
Workers in these sectors operate heavy equipment or commercial vehicles for extended periods, often without adequate rest or rotation. Fatigue and distraction are common and deadly occupational hazards.
Public Sector and Operational Leadership
Law enforcement, emergency response, and management roles often come with long hours, high-pressure decisions, and little rest.
- Managers across industries: 105 deaths
- Protective service professionals: 98 deaths
These workers often drive long distances after tough shifts or emergencies. Their jobs treat stress as routine, while fatigue usually goes unnoticed.
In leadership roles, fatigue often gets mistaken for commitment. Managers who answer calls after hours or work while commuting may not notice their focus slipping until it’s too late. When long hours become an institutional culture, the risk behind the wheel escalates silently.
Healthcare and Service Industries
Service-oriented roles, especially those involving shift work or travel between client sites, show an increasing share of transportation-related fatalities.
- Healthcare and social assistance: 63 deaths
- Retail workers: 54 deaths
Women often fill these roles, many juggling caregiving responsibilities that reduce time for rest and recovery. Off-hour commutes and irregular schedules raise the risk of crashes.
What Causes Work-Related Crashes?
An exhausted worker reflecting the hidden impact of job stress on safety – Drazen Zigic | Freepik
Driver behavior is often cited in accident reports, but the root causes run deeper. But fatigue, mental strain, and chaotic schedules can be just as dangerous as speeding or texting.
- Sleep deprivation is biologically impairing: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention equates 17 hours without sleep to driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.05. After 24 hours without sleep, the effect mimics a 0.10 BAC, over the legal limit.
- Emotional fatigue dulls response time: First responders and social workers face trauma that dulls mental sharpness. Stress responses linger long after a shift ends.
- Isolation removes checks: Agricultural workers, nighttime warehouse staff, and field technicians often work in remote conditions with no team supervision. Fatigue symptoms go unrecognized and unreported.
- Compounding stress affects judgment: Managers and mobile professionals often work beyond scheduled hours. Their workloads increase without sufficient recovery, subtly degrading awareness over time.
Fatigue is not a personal weakness; it is a systemic consequence of misaligned job design and policy gaps. Although crash reports often cite driver behavior, they rarely account for underlying fatigue.
Unlike speeding or distraction, exhaustion leaves no visible trace, unless employers acknowledge fatigue as a latent hazard; it remains unmeasured, unreported, and unaddressed, yet it can be just as fatal.
The Science Behind Fatigue and Fatalities
The link between fatigue and fatal crashes is well documented. The research tells a consistent story: sleep loss, long hours, and poor recovery don’t just affect performance but create life-threatening risks behind the wheel. Here’s how science maps directly to what’s happening on the job.
The National Sleep Foundation states that one in five fatal road accidents involves a drowsy driver. The physiological effects of sleep loss mirror alcohol impairment. This is not theoretical; driving performance suffers measurably after even moderate sleep restriction.
In commercial transportation, fatigue is particularly lethal. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reports that 57 percent of fatal crashes involving commercial trucks cite driver fatigue as a contributing factor. These drivers often exceed regulatory limits or struggle with undiagnosed sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, which affects up to 28 percent of long-haul operators according to FMCSA medical guidance.
Workplace structure plays a role as well. According to NIOSH, nearly 30 percent of workers exceed 40 hours per week, and a third work nonstandard hours. These work patterns disrupt the body’s rhythm and cut into recovery sleep, increasing crash risk.
Each of these findings reinforces a simple truth: Fatigue isn’t random. It follows patterns and can be predicted and prevented.
How Employers Can Prevent Fatigue-Related Crashes
A supervisor leads a safety briefing to address fatigue risks – Drazen Zigic | Freepik
Reducing transportation-related fatalities is not solely a regulatory issue. It is a leadership obligation. Organizations must recognize and address the conditions that impair employee performance behind the wheel.
Employer-Controlled Interventions:
- Enforce rest protocols: Limit shift lengths and schedule mandatory breaks, especially for mobile and night shift roles.
- Use alert systems that detect micro-sleep or lapses in attention: Allow technology to intervene before fatigue becomes fatal by identifying signs of drowsiness in real time.
- Integrate fatigue-detection systems in fleet vehicles: Utilize systems such as drowsiness alerts or driver-facing cameras to detect fatigue early and prevent crashes.
- Ban all phone use while driving: Apply this policy universally, including hands-free devices, and integrate it into onboarding and ongoing training.
- Audit schedules for fatigue risk: Conduct routine reviews of shift patterns, overtime usage, and travel assignments to detect overload.
- Provide burnout response resources: Train supervisors to recognize burnout indicators and create access to support services.
- Inspect fleet vehicles routinely: Mechanical failures, combined with human fatigue, multiply the likelihood of crashes. Maintenance schedules must be strict and tracked.
- Educate employees on micro-sleeps: Train workers to recognize and respond to brief lapses in attention before they escalate behind the wheel.
- Educate on recovery practices: Offer training and materials on effective rest strategies, emphasizing sleep quality, not just quantity.
- Offer commute recovery support tools: Provide access to rest areas, flexible shift options, or transport aids to help workers recover after long commutes.
While some employers may hesitate due to perceived costs or operational complexity, the tradeoff is clear. Investing in rest policies, detection systems, and scheduled audits reduces both human risk and legal exposure. The cost of inaction, injuries, litigation, and reputational damage is far higher than the investment required to prevent preventable crashes.
Many of these steps already fit within proven workplace driving safety models, including those detailed in NIOSH’s motor vehicle safety research, which address employer responsibilities across scheduling, training, and fatigue risk controls.
Fatigue Can Be Prevented If Employers Act
Transportation-related deaths remain the leading cause of workplace fatalities in the United States, not due to unpredictable road conditions, but due to preventable workplace factors like long hours, poor scheduling, and unmanaged fatigue. Stress, sleep deprivation, and burnout are not just byproducts of demanding jobs; they are central factors in fatal outcomes behind the wheel.
From construction sites and distribution hubs to healthcare visits and emergency response, driving for work places employees in some of the most hazardous conditions they face. When fatigue is normalized and schedules ignore human limits, the risk compounds. Safety behind the wheel starts with how the job is built, workloads, shifts, and leadership choices, not just tools or training.
Stress is often overlooked in workplace safety plans. But addressing it saves lives. Waiting until after a crash isn’t an option. Acting now means the subsequent crash can be avoided.
