PANACEA: Fitness to drive, countermeasures against impairment

The PANACEA project is a Horizon 2020 funded project (Research and Innovation Action (RIA)) that since 2021 has brought together numerous experts from different fields to tackle the issue of commercial drivers’ fitness to drive. This topic is a pressing one for at least two reasons. First, despite a decreasing trend, each year around 20000 deaths are reported on European roads, involving vehicles’ occupants and pedestrians, and sources show that intoxication (from alcohol or other substances), fatigue, and cognitive overload play a key role. Possibly, this concerns commercial drivers even more than others, due to long and tiresome shifts. Second, while systems to detect drivers’ fatigue and sleepiness are being discussed and even implemented in vehicles, a holistic approach is still missing.
A consortium composed of 16 international partners was formed to work on the idea that properly developed strategies tackling these forms of impairment on multiple levels can reduce accidents’ frequency and consequences. With the end goal of delivering marketable products, the PANACEA project unfolds alongside four main trajectories: i) A holistic approach targeting drivers, operators, and enforcement by means of pre-shift, within-shift, post-shift, and roadside driving ability monitoring and assessment; ii) Assessments of physical, cognitive, and physiological ability to drive for commercial drivers with different Commercial Health Toolkits (CHTs); iii) Development and implementation of cloud-based countermeasures and coaching tool to respond to positive measurements; iv) Testing solutions in the context of 3 use cases (UC), with options for extension to other locations and means of transportation.
In this framework, researchers from the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Center for Technology Experience have contributed to the project by helping to develop the countermeasures for the cloud-based system. The process of selecting and developing these countermeasures consisted of two distinct phases, with the goal to identify at least 3 appropriate countermeasures for each of the 3 UC (minimum of 9). In the first phase, countermeasures on the operational (short-term), tactical (medium-term), and strategic (long-term) levels were identified and subsequently shortlisted according to the needs of each target user group (drivers, operators, and enforcement). The second phase resulted in the selection of the final set of countermeasures (10 in total) and the development of their content, before the implementation into the cloud-based system.
In conclusion, regardless of the devices employed to detect the different forms of driving impairment, these countermeasures represent a valuable methodological tool for all involved stakeholders to minimize (short-term), handle (mid-term), and prevent (long-term) some of the main underlying causes of road accidents. For the future, they shall be offered to companies that employ drivers for commercial purposes as a solution to improve the quality of work for multiple stakeholders and on multiple levels.