DROWSY DRIVING
Drowsiness - Teetering On The Edge
When you get drowsy one part of your brain is shutting down the body while another part is fighting to stay awake. Because sleep is involuntary you have no control when it will overtake your consciousness. Drowsiness is the last thing that happens before you fall asleep, whether you want to or not.
Drowsy driving is a hazardous condition, in which, drivers are so tired or sleepy that they teeter on the edge of consciousness and succumbing to sleep. While truck drivers are often associated with this problem, NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) reports 95% of drowsy driving crashes are caused
by drivers of
passenger
vehicles.
Alarming Stats
A 2005 National Sleep Foundation poll revealed an alarming 60% of drivers (about 168 million motorists) drove while feeling drowsy and 37% admitted to actually dozing off at the wheel.
Each year 100,000 police-reported crashes, 71,000 injuries and 1,550 deaths are caused by drowsy drivers. However, since there is no test to determine sleepiness like there is for intoxication (i.e. "Breathalyzer", blood alcohol test), traffic experts assert the true number of drowsy driving accidents are 3 or 4 times higher.
Click the boxes below for eye-opening facts about drowsy driving:
