We all know the symptoms of being drowsy, eyelids begin to droop, head and body begins to feel heavy, and you just can’t stop yawning. In our society many people don’t have regular sleeping patterns. Trying to juggle work, have a social life, and free time to ourselves seem impossible to fit in a 24 hour day. So we try to find extra hours by cutting down on our sleeping hours. This week is Drowsy Driving Prevention Week, and numerous organizations such as the National Sleep Foundation and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety are trying to get this topic out to society. According to a recent poll conducted by the AAA Foundation stated that a large percentage of Americans drive under the influence of sleep. A NSF poll of approximately 1,000 people found that 60% of drivers, or about 168 million people, admitted that they had driven while sleepy in the preceding year; and 37% confessed that they had actually fallen asleep behind the wheel. These are very scary statistics, driving while drowsy is almost as bad as driving while drunk. If driving while drowsy your reaction rate is slowed down just as much as people who are drunk; people who fall asleep behind the wheel are not only putting themselves in danger but also other drivers in danger. When sleep the body is not alert at all so that can allow for anything to happen.
Educating people on the dangers of drowsy driving is a key step in prevention. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 100,000 crashes that are reported to the police each year as the direct result of fatigue and sleepiness. If more people become educated on this matter and actually see the statistics of how many people drive while drowsy and how many crashes occur as a result of doing so, then I believe most people will think twice before getting behind the wheel while drowsy.
4 comments:
It is never safe to get in a car if you feel drowsy tired or drunk. These are all things that can affect your body in a motor vehicle that can kill you if used in the wrong way.
The other day I actually rode by a guy who looked like he was either falling asleep or actually was asleep for a few seconds and we were on the interstate. If you are really that sleepy then you should not be driving even if you are in a hurry. At least get some coffee!
I have experience with driving drowsy. In both drunk driving and driving drowsy it all boils down to not being fully focused on what you are really doing. Most accidents occur because of distracted drivers.
I think that it's never really a good idea to get behind a wheel unless you are at 100% capacity. But I think that hoping for that to become common sentiment, isn't going to happen. People have places to go and things to do.
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