Tired doctors are putting lives at risk on the roads at the end of draining 30-hour shifts, it was claimed yesterday.

Junior doctors say that over-tired colleagues are unfit to treat patients and fear that, without proper breaks, mistakes could put patients' lives at risk.

They are calling on the Department of Health to provide taxis or proper on-site accommodation so exhausted medics are not forced to put lives on the line.

Despite a Government pledge to reduce hours worked by junior doctors, most in the North-East are still facing 72-hour working weeks, including one 30-hour shift every five days.

They believe patients are being placed at risk and are asking to be made exempt from responsibility for mistakes made when working more than 56 hours a week.

Dr Emma Bywaters, a senior house officer at City Hospitals, Sunderland, is a member of the British Medical Association's junior doctor's committee.

She said: "This is partly about providing transport or accommodation for those doctors who are so tired they are danger to themselves and others on the roads. But it is also about protecting patients.

"If, at 5pm, after a 30-hour shift, a junior doctor is unfit to drive home, then are they really fit to be treating a patient - prescribing drugs or dealing with an emergency - at 4.30pm?

"It stands to reason that mistakes are more likely to be made when a doctor is tired and we feel this is an issue that needs to be properly addressed."

The concerns are due to be addressed by a national conference at which junior doctors have put forward motions about sleep deprivation.

The proposals include that where a trust has failed to implement new working patterns which reduce the risks, the trainee doctor is not held responsible for any adverse clinical incidents.

In November 2000, the Government brought in tough new penalties for trusts where junior doctors were working more than 56 hours a week, fully enforceable by the end of this year.

Hospitals that do not comply could lose the accreditation which allows them to appoint new junior doctors.

But a spokesman for the BMA said that despite the Government's action, many juniors were still working excessively long hours without a break.

"This benefits no one, putting the health of the patient as well as the doctor at risk," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the latest investment of money into the NHS would increase the number of doctors in hospitals, easing the pressures on staff