Driving drowsy = driving deadly

 by John R. Christensen

With the holidays fast approaching, many of you will undoubtedly be taking to the air and road as part of your plans.  If you’re driving to your holiday destination, make sure you’re traveling as safely as possible.  Before leaving, make sure your car is in good working order, be sure everyone wears their seat belt, and don’t drink and drive.  There is one more hazard on the road that you need to be aware of, one whose dangers have more than quadrupled in the last couple of years.  Drowsy driving. 

After a comprehensive sampling of 50,000 auto collisions, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concluded that 16.5 percent of fatal car crashes involved a drowsy driver.  That’s a startling increase from 2.4 percent just two years prior.  

In a recent study, AAA found that 41 percent of participants said they had fallen asleep behind the wheel.  11 percent of those said it had happened in the last year, and of those 11 percent more than half reported that they fell asleep while driving on the highway.  

This is a scary revelation considering how fast a car can veer off the road or into oncoming lanes at sixty miles per hour. 

More than a 25 percent of those surveyed stated that in the last month they has been so tired they had trouble keeping their eyes open while driving.   Driving drowsy has obviously become more of a problem than it has been in the past, so it’s time to take precautionary steps to make sure we don’t become another car collision statistic. 

You can’t help what others do behind the wheel of their own vehicles, but you can ensure that you don’t fall asleep.  People don’t always recognize when they’re tired.  Here are some signs from AAA that you may be more tired than you think.

• You have trouble keeping your eyes open and focused
• You can’t keep your head up
• You daydream or have wandering, disconnected thoughts
• You yawn frequently or rub your eyes repeatedly
• You find yourself drifting from your lane or tailgating
• You miss signs or drive past your exit
• You feel irritable and restless
• You drift off the road and hit the rumble strips
• You are unable to remember how far you have traveled or what you have recently passed by

Here are some tips on how to stay awake while driving:

• Before beginning a long drive, get enough sleep and eat something before you go.
• If you get tired on the road, put on some music, and keep your window cracked open.
• Caffeine is not necessarily the answer.  It takes about 30 minutes to enter your bloodstream and will keep you alert for awhile, but the effects won’t last. Also,it won’t necessarily keep you from falling asleep.  You can use it as part of your strategy but it’s not enough by itself.
• Pull off the road and take a break when you get tired, plain and simple.  You should take breaks every couple hours whether you’re tired or not.  Get out, stretch your legs, and grab a snack.  If you just want to take a quick nap you should pull all the way off the road into a parking lot, especially at night.  If you pull off to the shoulder, you risk getting rear-ended.
• If you’re tired, it’s best not to use cruise control.  Concentrating on your speed can help you stay awake.
•  And this should be obvious, but don’t drink alcohol before a trip.  You may not get drunk off of one beer, but it may make you tired.
• If someone is riding with you, take turns behind the wheel.
• Avoid driving under pressure.  Plan your trip early enough to drive safe.  If you’re late, don’t try and make up time by driving for longer periods without sleep.  You won’t be saving time if you get into a collision.  Trying to make up time could be a deadly mistake.

Be safe on the road this holiday season.