An innovative safety system which could help reduce car accidents is being developed which constantly monitors the driver and alerts them if it thinks they are becoming fatigued.

Some estimates claim that around 25% of fatal road traffic accidents could be caused by driver fatigue, with some surveys blaming it for more serious road accidents than drunk drivers.

Attention Assist, which is being developed by Daimler engineers, works by monitoring the driver’s individual typical driving behaviours.

It measures a drivers steering behaviours precisely, noting when a driver stops making regular little steering corrections and replaces them with a long delay before a more vigorous steering correction indicating the onset of fatigue.

If Attention Assist believes that fatigue is setting in it emits an alarm and will illuminate a symbol on the instrument panel, probably a coffee cup.

Other driver reactions measured are speed and its longitudinal and transverse acceleration, activation of direction indicators, depression of the accelerator or brake pedals along with the operation of the stereo, sat nav or phone system if fitted.

Attention Assist also takes in to consideration the vehicles ambient surroundings measuring the possible influence of wind, and bumps in the road that may affect the driver’s reactions.

In tests drivers were required to drive for four hours without music or talking and asked how they felt, and to push a button every 20 minutes.

In the final hour the drivers reported feeling alright but the measures suggested otherwise, indicating that the Attention Assist may be more aware of driver fatigue than the driver themselves.

The Attention Assist system if successfully introduced into all vehicles would reduce car accidents significantly and would be a welcome step on the never ending quest for improved road safety.