DWE: Driving While Exhausted

A short while ago The Driver Guy called up a friend at a not unreasonable hour in the morning, fully assuming that she'd be awake.  She answered the phone, sounding as fine at first. But as the conversation evolved, it was clear something was wrong. She was slurring some of her words, and her sentences came out in an awkward fashion.

"Are you all right?You sound like you've been drinking!" The Driver Guy asked half jokingly, knowing full well she didn't drink, and, in fact, had a very strong hatred of alcohol of any sort due to alcohol related deaths in her family.

It turns out that when he had called he had woken her up out of a sound sleep of only two hours. She had been pulling all nighters on a large project she had been working on, and getting very little sleep in between. Fortunately she did not have to commute as she worked from home.

Later that day, when The Driver Guy called her again, she said to him, "You know, in a way you were right. I was drunk when you called. But drunk from a lack of sleep--not from alcohol. I was barely able to keep a coherent thought in my head, I was so sleepy."

Driving while exhausted-- drowsy-- sleepy-- however one wants to term it, is just as serious as driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, yet the topic is very often given little notice. It almost seems like the only time it is ever brought up is when there is a news story involving fatalities, such as this one.

An Australian study recently found that being awake for 18 hours produced impairment equal to a blood alcohol concentration of .05; double that after 24 hours without sleep.

Conservative estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration point to at least 100,000 crashes due to driver exhaustion each year.

The most vulnerable to drowsy driving are, long distance truck drivers, teens, adults with young children, and shift workers.

In 2003, New Jersey made it a crime to drive while drowsy. In California, manslaughter charges are brought up against the driver who falls asleep at the wheel and causes fatalities.

Unfortunately, our fast paced culture thinks of sleep as more of a nuisance than a necessity. Afternoon naps are considered only for young children, certainly not for adults. But several studies have proven that taking a short nap in the afternoon is not only beneficial for overall health, it actually improves productivity. This makes sense: when the mind and body are well rested, things are done faster and more efficiently. In some countries, taking a mid afternoon nap after lunch is considered de rigueur and would probably look at us askance if we told them that naps are only for the young and the very old!

The National Sleep Foundation has developed a website written specifically about the issue of drowsy driving: www.drowsydriving.org. Please visit the site, as it offers some very good information about this underreported problem.

There are numerous suggestions when it comes to driving while sleepy, most of which can be found at the Drowsy Driving site. But the over all best advice that Team Alliance can give you is: if you feel tired, overwhelmed, and have been driving for long periods of time, please pull over, if possible, and take a rest. Better yet, before setting out, make plans to stop periodically for rest and sleep breaks. It isn't worth risking your life or the lives of others, thinking that you are going to save time getting to your destination if you just kept going. It ultimately will not work, as you will probably find out all too tragically!


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