Future Victoria: High-tech goggle trial to stop tired drivers getting on the road

Australia’s first roadside test for fatigue is being tested in Victoria, in a bid to stop drivers who are too tired to get behind the wheel. Here’s how it works.

The goggles that are being tested to measure driver fatigue. Picture: Monash University

Police could soon use futuristic goggles to test if a driver is too tired to be behind the wheel.

A cutting edge $850,000 pilot program aims to create an Australian-first roadside test for fatigue, much like alcohol and drugs.

It comes as Victoria’s road toll surges to a three-year high, with the state’s top road policing cop warning another 50 people will lose their lives before the end of the year.

The trial — being delivered by the Department of Transport and funded by the Transport Accident Commission — is being tested in a controlled environment.

Participants are deprived of sleep for 32 hours and then undertake a two-hour test drive in a dual-controlled car.

They are then hooked-up with blackout goggles, which is attached to a laptop that measures their involuntary eye movements.

The eye movements are analysed before and after the test drive.

The goggles being tested to measure driver fatigue in roadside tests. Picture: Monash University

In lab tests, involuntary eye movements are shown to be strongly linked to increasing levels of fatigue.

Road Safety Victoria head Robyn Seymour said fatigue was a factor in about 20 per cent of road crashes and a roadside test may be a way to tackle the problem.

“The current stage of the trial is taking place on a controlled track in partnership with the Monash University Accident Research Centre to try and validate existing research linking pupil instability to fatigue,” Ms Seymour said.

“This stage of the trial will continue to the end of 2019, with a field assessment to commence in 2020.”

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The next stage would be to assess the device in a roadside enforcement pilot.

But first it must be proven the device can accurately measure fatigue.

The long-term aim of the project is to create a roadside test for fatigue, similar to what police use to get drunk or drugged drivers off the road.