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Drowsy Driving Dangers

The alarm clock buzzes, and millions of people across the country prepare to start their day. Along with showering and eating breakfast, they take to the highways and byways on their daily commute to work.
Yet with fewer Americans getting enough sleep at night, what was once a routine drive to the office has become an accident waiting to happen, according to a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association. Between 1997 and 2002, approximately 1.35 million drivers were involved in accidents due to drowsy driving, the NHTSA reports.
“Drowsy driving affects reaction time and impairs judgment and vision,” said Angel Kiger, lead technician with the Providence Sleep Health Institute in Everett, Wash.
“There is a decline in attention to signs, road changes and to the actions of other drivers. Sleeplessness also increases moodiness and aggressive behavior.”
Safety officials observe common characteristics of crashes which involve drowsy drivers to help draw conclusions about how to prevent such accidents in the future, said Kiger. Drivers are typically alone in the car during the accident and, because they fall asleep or are subdued by sleepiness, take no evasive actions. Such crashes occur on high speed roads like interstates or highways and are generally in the early morning or late evening when driver’s biological clocks tell them to sleep.
“Drinking while sleepy increases drowsiness and impairment,” said Kiger. “But studies also show that being awake for 18 hours is as great a risk as driving drunk.”
While nobody can avoid driving while sleepy on occasion, there are several groups of people who are at a higher risk of having a sleep-related accident, as evidenced by crash reports and reports of driver performance and sleep behavior. Included in those groups are males between the ages of 16 and 29, shift workers who are lacking a regular sleep schedule and those with an undiagnosed sleep disorder like sleep apnea and narcolepsy.
For Michael O’Keefe, 26, of Nashville, Tenn., drowsy driving is a serious reality. On a trip from Jackson, Miss. to Jacksonville, Fla. several years ago, his friend began to nod off behind the wheel.
“I was just about to fall asleep myself when I had this incredible feeling to look up only to see us driving full speed at some orange, highway barrels,” O’Keef said. “I heard a loud boom, as one barrel flew off to the side of the car.”
He tried to wake his friend to no avail.
“The orange barrels were only there to block us from running into a large,
state-owned flashing arrow sign,” he said. “I would’ve given anything to avoid
that sign, but it was too late.”
At 40 mph, they drove straight into the sign.
Neither person was injured, but O’Keefe did learn a valuable lesson.
“It’s dangerous to drive when you’re sleepy because it really makes it hard to see
possible lane closures.”
Understanding which groups are most affected by sleep-related accidents and under what circumstances those accidents occur is not enough, Kiger said. There are a number of steps that can be taken by drivers to avoid becoming another victim of drowsy driving.
Of course the best way to prevent drowsy driving is to get enough sleep, but when a full night’s rest is not possible, drivers should take the following precautions, as prescribed by Kiger:

• Stop driving at the first sign of sleepiness.
  
• Avoid drinking even a small amount of alcohol when sleepy.
  
• Limit driving between midnight and 6 a.m.
  
• If feeling sleepy while driving, change drivers or pull over and take a 20 minute nap.
  
• Drink coffee or a caffeinated drink to increase short-term alertness. Remember though, it takes about 30 minutes for caffeine to enter the bloodstream.
  “Drowsy driving is dangerous because the driver doesn’t even realize that they are falling asleep or have fallen asleep until the (bumps in the road) wake them up or they actually collide with another obstacle,” Kiger said. “If precautions are taken though, these kind of accidents can easily be avoided.”