Highway Patrol charge: careless driving. Actual fact, the driver fell asleep.
Well, perhaps the trooper was correct: a driver who falls asleep at the wheel is careless. But doesn’t mean to be. A new, exhaustive study showed that 4 percent of adults admit to having fallen asleep while driving.
The study also revealed that certain people are particularly likely to report drowsiness while driving. Those who sleep less than six hours a night or snore often apparently are most likely to doze while driving, the research discovered. Snoring is a sign of sleep disorder, meaning snorers are more likely to tire easily and fall asleep during normal waking hours.
The researchers believe the actual number of driving sleepers was much greater because those who doze or nod off for a minute at the wheel may not realize it at the time or recall it later.
The subject was worth the cost of the study. Drowsy driving, reports indicate, caused an estimated 750 fatal accidents in 2009 and were responsible for another 30,000 nonfatal crashes.
The accidents they cause tend to be more serious because they fail to hit the brakes or veer off the road before crashing. How many of the head-on highway crashes on the nation’s highways were caused by drivers asleep at the wheel will never be known because the drivers at fault died or did not remember the sequence of events if they survived.
Anne G. Wheaton, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, led a study looking at 147,000 adults in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
Dr. Wheaton noted that people who fall asleep at the wheel may do it so quickly and briefly that it fails to register.
“It doesn’t mean that you put your head down and start snoring. You might just close your eyes for a second or two. One of the warning signs is when you have trouble remembering the last few miles you’ve driven, or when you miss an exit. It may be because you actually fell asleep for a moment,” she said.
Research shows that going without sleep for 20 to 21 hours and then getting behind the wheel is comparable to having a blood alcohol level of about .08 percent, which is the legal limit in most states.
Dr. Wheaton’s prescription for those who find themselves dozing is to find a safe place to pull over and take a short nap.
“Then get yourself a cup of coffee,” she advised.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
Tired drivers are a hazard on the road
