Abstract
Sleep Apnea Syndrome （SAS） can influence a person’s ability to drive a vehicle. The risk that a patient suffering from SAS may cause an accident is significantly higher than that of a healthy subject. We investigated cases where the causal link between SAS and vehicle collisions was questioned and examined the criminal liability of drivers with SAS. We studied fifteen cases from 1998 to 2013. All the drivers were men, and two-thirds of them were professional drivers. Only two drivers were diagnosed with SAS before being involved in vehicle collisions and none of them had been treated. Twelve drivers （80%） pleaded not guilty or guilty with extenuating circumstances because they had SAS. Two of fourteen decisions were innocence. In recent years, the responsibility for the vehicle collision that happened for the disease of the vehicle driver is pursued strictly. It is often judged that duty to cancel driving when they felt sleepiness occurs, even if drivers oneself did not recognize to be SAS. Although the prevalence of SAS is high, there are few patients undergoing treatment. It is necessary to enlighten vehicle drivers, about the symptoms of an SAS patient, the risk of vehicle collisions being high, and the fact that the condition is easily curable. Furthermore, professional vehicle drivers are expected to undergo thorough screening tests.
