It may be challenging for you to find the time to exercise, and eating right when you’re so busy with work and life in New Jersey may seem next to impossible. For truckers who often work 14-hour days and eat every meal at a restaurant, the struggle may be even more difficult.
Unfortunately, per Science Daily, research indicates that the health problems that arise due to the typical trucker lifestyle may be causing truck crashes.
Health problems affect driver abilities
You may not think of low back pain as a crash risk, but truck drivers who suffer this condition are more likely to perform poorly behind the wheel. Other health problems that are proven performance indicators include heart disease, diabetes, anxiety and high blood pressure.
Combinations increase crash risk
Out of 49,464 truckers whose medical records and driving performance were analyzed over several years, 34 percent had at least one of these conditions. Even when the health conditions were not considered serious on their own, researchers say a driver with a combination of two or three had a much higher risk of avoidable injury crashes.
The rate of truck crashes is typically measured per 100 million miles traveled. Among all truckers, there are 29 injury crashes every 100 million miles. However, truckers who have a combination of health conditions have a much higher rate: 93 per 100 million miles. You may wonder whether other factors could have skewed the data, but to rule out error, researchers took into account performance indicators such as experience, age and other issues that affect a driver’s abilities.
