Individuals who drive for a living face many unique work-related hazards. One of the leading causes of commercial truck accidents continues to be driver fatigue. In an effort to prevent car and truck accidents caused by overly tired drivers, one company has invented new technology that measures and detects variations in a driver's heartbeat.

Each year, an estimated 1,550 deaths are attributed to accidents caused by fatigued drivers. Another 71,000 individuals are injured in car and truck accidents caused by overly tired drivers. Through increased monitoring of hours and stricter regulations, officials within the commercial transportation industry have attempted to find ways to prevent truck drivers from driving while fatigued. To date, however, no effective technology exists to monitor a trucker who is already behind the wheel.

Recently, a company called Plessey Semiconductors announced it has developed a product that can monitor a driver's heart rate. The product could be embedded within a driver's seat and would work by monitoring the heart rate to detect when a driver's heart beat begins to slow which signals a driver is becoming sleepy.

The product would be the first of its kind as previous attempts to monitor a driver's heart rate meant that a driver had to wear actual sensors. By embedding the sensors in the driver's seat, monitoring can occur continuously and without interfering with a driver's normal routine.

Currently the product is still being tested, but some estimate it could be available in certain vehicles in the near future.

Commercial truck accidents caused by driver fatigue have gained attention in recent years prompting new restrictions on the number of hours truck drivers are allowed to driver per week. Serious and fatal trucking accidents attributable to driver fatigue, however, continue to occur with all too much frequency. A product such as this may soon help prevent such tragic accidents.

Source: Forbes, "Sensors To Detect Driver Fatigue," Jennifer Hicks, Oct. 29, 2012