Falling asleep at the wheel is a key factor in road deaths and drivers must begin to recognise this, according to Mr Ivor Callely, Minister of State at the Department of Transport.
He was speaking after six more people were killed on roads in the Republic during the weekend. This brings the total so far this year to 370, 44 more deaths than for the whole of last year.
Mr Callely said there was widespread recognition that drinking and speeding were two of the main causes of road accidents, but driver fatigue was seldom mentioned. "I know from my contacts with gardaí that fatigue plays a fundamental role in a number of accidents. People are inclined to push themselves too far and think that they will keep going because they are only half an hour away from home," he said.
"People are getting up earlier and then working later. They have to become more aware of the danger of driver fatigue."
In addition, motorists were commuting longer distances to and from work.
Traffic jams over Christmas would add to journey times for tired drivers, he said.
Garda spokesman Insp Ray McHugh said it was difficult to quantify the role driver fatigue played in road accidents.
If someone crashed into a wall, it was almost impossible to know if fatigue was involved, unless there was no evidence of braking before the collision.
While tachographs regulated the driving time of lorry drivers, there was no way of ensuring that tired motorists did not get behind the wheel, Insp McHugh said.
He said motorists should be aware of the danger of fatigue when making long journeys during the Christmas holidays.
"If you feel tired, pull over, have a coffee or take a short break. It won't make much difference to your journey time but it will make your journey safer," he said. "You have to take a common sense approach to it."
The increase in road deaths this year was described as disappointing by Mr Callely.
There was a feeling that people were less concerned about penalty points and were not as vigilant as they were when the points system was introduced.
Some 276 people have been arrested for suspected drink driving in the second week of the Christmas road safety campaign.
This compares to 299 for the same week in 2003. It brings the total to 567 for the first fortnight of the road safety campaign.
Gardaí breath-tested 47 per cent more people in the first fortnight of this year's initiative. Some 765 were breath-tested, compared with 519 in 2003.
