......And isn't that the point of this whole thread, that daily we are put in the situation where we "knowingly" drive without sufficient rest. Put there by our rostering departments who, at least in my case, use days off merely as a buffer between 2 duties.
The moralizers amongst us say that if we know we are tired then we shouldn't drive. Yeah. Fine! But that would most of us on the streets in short order and, quite frankly, is not a viable solution. I know personally, if I fly all night and don't get to bed before the sun comes up, then I'm just not going to sleep til that night. My mind is just not interested. Body wants to sleep, mind says 'it's day time, time to get up'. So that makes even the hotel rest seem impractical, not to mention the expense.
I think what bothers most posters on this thread is that with the direction taken by the legal system these days, it will not take much of a leap for a keen lawyer, of the mindset of PowerRanger, to be applying these same arguments to one of us who becomes involved in a serious accident after one of the many duties described above, using the argument 'you knowingly......' or 'it was your final responsibilty.......'. This is fairyland stuff, we all know it. But the scary part is that the legal system is moving more and more in the direction of 'someone MUST be held responsible' and fairyland is where they're headed.
I'm not 'knackered' for nothing!