Analysis of vehicle collision court cases involving drivers suffering from Sleep Apnea Syndrome （SAS）

DOI
  • BABA Mineko
    Center for Integrated Medical Research, School of Medicine, Keio University
  • HITOSUGI Masahito
    Department of Legal Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science
  • AISO Sadakazu
    Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Keio University

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 睡眠時無呼吸症候群（SAS）による眠気に起因した自動車事故例の検討
  • 本邦刑事判例における司法判断と予防対策について
  • A study on the judicial precedents and accompanying preventive measures

Description

Sleep Apnea Syndrome （SAS） can influence a person’s ability to drive a vehicle. The risk that a patient suffering from SAS may cause an accident is significantly higher than that of a healthy subject. We investigated cases where the causal link between SAS and vehicle collisions was questioned and examined the criminal liability of drivers with SAS. We studied fifteen cases from 1998 to 2013. All the drivers were men, and two-thirds of them were professional drivers. Only two drivers were diagnosed with SAS before being involved in vehicle collisions and none of them had been treated. Twelve drivers （80%） pleaded not guilty or guilty with extenuating circumstances because they had SAS. Two of fourteen decisions were innocence. In recent years, the responsibility for the vehicle collision that happened for the disease of the vehicle driver is pursued strictly. It is often judged that duty to cancel driving when they felt sleepiness occurs, even if drivers oneself did not recognize to be SAS. Although the prevalence of SAS is high, there are few patients undergoing treatment. It is necessary to enlighten vehicle drivers, about the symptoms of an SAS patient, the risk of vehicle collisions being high, and the fact that the condition is easily curable. Furthermore, professional vehicle drivers are expected to undergo thorough screening tests.

Journal

Keywords

Details 詳細情報について

  • CRID
    1390001205742674688
  • NII Article ID
    130006410199
  • DOI
    10.24597/jcts.13.2_18
  • ISSN
    24334545
    21883874
  • Text Lang
    ja
  • Data Source
    • JaLC
    • CiNii Articles
  • Abstract License Flag
    Disallowed

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