Over the next few weeks, Service Truck Magazine will be presenting articles written by the Garden City, New York, law firm Chopra & Nocerino, accident lawyers. All of these articles will deal with driving while fatigued. All of these articles will have something we are sure you will recognize in yourself.
All of these articles are worth reading, especially if you are keen on saving your life and others on the road. Each article will appear on a Thursday. Below is the first of three articles.
Driving while fatigued can be a significant hazard, leading to severe accidents, injuries, and even fatalities. Thousands of accidents and hundreds of fatalities occur every year due to fatigued driving, emphasizing the importance of learning to recognize the signs of drowsiness while driving.
Get drowsy driving help from our experienced accident lawyers at Chopra & Nocerino, LLP (www.chopranocerino.com), and learn what to look for and when to consider pulling over for some rest.
Driving is an essential part of modern life that many take for granted. Many of us drive daily, going to and from work, picking our kids up from school, and traveling to various appointments.
However, driving a vehicle while fatigued—even for a short distance—is dangerous for you and everyone else on the road. Driving while fatigued can lead to severe accidents, injuries, and even fatalities. Recognizing the risks of drowsy driving helps you take appropriate measures to safeguard yourself, your passengers, and others on the road.
Fatigue is a Major Cause of Road Accidents
Driving while fatigued can have catastrophic results. Drowsy driving statistics show that thousands of accidents are caused by driving while fatigued annually.
In 2017, drowsy driving was a significant contributing factor to 91,000 crashes, resulting in 50,000 injuries and nearly 800 deaths. In 2021, 684 fatalities resulted from accidents involving drowsy driving—an 8.2 percent increase from the 632 lives lost in 2020.
Drowsiness is hazardous when you’re behind the wheel, as it can drastically impact multiple elements of safe driving, including:
- Your ability to make good decisions;
- Your reaction time to brake or steer suddenly;
- Your attention to the road.
Factors That Impact Driving Fatigue
Driving fatigue dangers can stem from numerous factors, possibly a combination of factors, including the following:
- Lack of Sleep: Prolonged wakefulness or inadequate sleep are significant contributing factors involved in driving fatigue. Sleep deprivation can wreak havoc on your body, leaving your brain exhausted and unable to complete tasks efficiently. You may notice you have a tough time focusing or learning new things. Additionally, your reaction time might be slower due to the delay in signals traveling to and from your brain. These delays can decrease your coordination and increase your risk of an accident. If you continually get too little sleep—less than seven hours per day—you gradually accrue “sleep debt,” making it more likely you’ll fall asleep unintentionally. This is associated with more reports of overwhelming drowsiness while behind the wheel.
- Stress: Stress is often directly related to fatigue, acting as a root cause of high fatigue levels in many people. Prolonged stress, particularly high stress levels, can result in chronic fatigue and sleep disruptions, contributing to overall fatigue. Excessive stress ties back into sleep deprivation, contributing to the overall fatigue issue and the dangers of drowsiness behind the wheel.
- Irregular Sleep Patterns: Inconsistent sleep schedules and frequent waking periods during the night can contribute to overall fatigue. Various studies have discovered that irregular sleeping patterns can negatively affect the body’s metabolism, which regulates how we use energy and function overall. The impact on energy use can contribute to overall feelings of fatigue and drowsiness, particularly while sedentary during driving.
- Driving for Long Periods: Sitting behind the wheel for countless hours can contribute to fatigue, especially if you’re experiencing mental or physical exhaustion. Lengthy stretches of empty roads with little to no stimulus can cause your alertness to decrease, while longer sitting times can cause higher levels of general and physical fatigue.
- Medications: Certain medications can contribute to feelings of drowsiness, heightening the importance of avoiding driving while taking these medications. Common medications that can cause sleepiness include: antidepressants; antihistamines; antiemetics; antipsychotics; anticonvulsants; high blood pressure medications; benzodiazepines; drugs to treat Parkinson’s disease; muscle relaxants; and opioids. These medications often have drowsiness or fatigue listed as side effects on the packaging. Recognizing these side effects and reacting appropriately to avoid fatigue-related vehicle accidents is important.
- Time of Day: The body’s natural biological clock can contribute to fatigue, as it causes highs and lows of drowsiness throughout the day. For many adults, drowsiness is at its highest between two and four in the morning and one and three in the afternoon. Car accidents also rise during the shifts to and from daylight saving time due to the darker hours in the morning or evening.