Click here to find out more about OSA, its signs, symptoms and impacts on a persons health
Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety:
Sleep Apnoea (Road Deaths) Date: May 13, 2009
Meg Munn (Sheffield, Heeley) (Lab/Co-op): On 8 August 2006, 25-year-old Toby Tweddell set off to work along the M62 near Liverpool. On the way, a lorry ploughed into his car, and as a result of the accident Toby died. The lives of his family and friends were devastated: his fiancee Jenny, parents Monica and Nic, his uncle, my constituent Seb Schmoller, and many others. It was a dreadful day, too, for Colin Wrighton, the lorry driver who killed Toby. He had fallen asleep at the wheel of his vehicle, which crashed into a line of cars.
Colin Wrighton had seen his doctor just five months earlier complaining of tiredness. Tests to find out whether he was diabetic returned negative, and he was told he was probably suffering from stress. The medical profession’s failure to diagnose sleep apnoea and refer Colin Wrighton to a consultant in sleep medicine meant that he has had to come to terms with the awful result of the accident that he caused. Click here to read the full article.
Other links:
- Tiredness can kill - DVLA advice (in PDF format)
- Cost-effectiveness of using continuous positive airways pressure in the treatment of severe obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome in the uk
- Treatment with Nasal CPAP Decreases Automobile Accidents in Patients with Sleep Apnoea
- Sleep disorder 'danger' of HGVs from the BBC.
- The Sleep Apnoea Trust Association (SATA) is the leading UK charity working in the field of sleep apnoea working to improve the lives of patients and their families.
Professional bodies:
NICE - the National Institure for Health and Clinical Excellence
The British Thoracic Society - whose objective is 'to improve the standards of care of people who have respiratory diseases'.
Impress is a joint initiative between the two leading respiratory clinical societies in the UK: the British Thoracic Society and the General Practice Airways Group
