Drowsy Drivers
Have you ever been driving on the road and felt the urge to want to pull over because you were too tired to continue driving? Most of the times this happens because the person is maybe lacking the appropriate amount of sleep needed. Many motorists think they know how to counter fatigue: turn up the radio, roll down the window, and talk on the phone. But most of times these remedies aren’t enough to keep the driver alert enough to drive. The most suitable thing to do is to take a quick fifteen to twenty minute nap or drink some coffee to help enhance driving awareness.
Drowsy drivers who feel like they’re able to drive should re-consider their judgment. Sometimes people feel like they’re able to drive under sleepy conditions but honestly they’re putting themselves and others on the road around them in serious danger. Drivers can prevent drowsiness by taking naps or drinking some kind of caffeine drinks. This can help promote awareness and can improve the safety of the driver driving and also other drivers on the road surrounding the driver.
Many people feel like they’ll be able to overcome their tiredness but truthfully you cannot fight your sleepiness especially while you are out on the road. Others believe that once they get on the road they’ll be able to wake up but that’s not always the case. Instead of pulling over their vehicles, many people chose to continue to drive while they are tired. This can be an extremely dangerous routine to adopt. According to researchers, many of the fatal crashes showed that the drivers were not getting enough sleep and were up longer than they need to be. Drivers that pulled over and took a nap were less likely to end up in a fatal accident (OH Editorial Staff). Some drivers also said that they didn’t feel too comfortable pulling over on the side of the road to take a nap because they felt it wasn’t safe (Yee 232). This can be true in some cases but people that feel this way would have to ask, would they rather take the chance of seriously injuring themselves?
Drivers that take road trips and drivers happen to work late night shifts are the tops contributors to sleep related car crashes. People that plan on driving for long periods of time should stop once they feel too tired and get a hotel room.
I have outlined to him the pathophysiology of the disorder and treatment options that are available. He will now proceed to a diagnostic sleep study. He has previously had microsleeps when driving a couple of years ago, but has put in place precautions since and has not had any issues of late. It is imperative that he continues to take very strict precautions when driving. He will also need to look at trying to increase his sleep hour
The current driver shortage didn't happen overnight, but to carriers facing the oncoming crisis that's coming - well, like a speeding truck - it can certainly feel that way. A "perfect storm" of detriments has created a void in the normal flow of potential drivers, from baby boomers eyeing retirement or alternate jobs that keep them closer to homes and families to millennials that consider the demands of truck driving a poor match for their desired lifestyle. In terms of truck-driving demographics, those edge-of-retirement baby boomers are also being pulled off the road by stiffer regulations on medical conditions like sleep apnea, which could affect alertness or even response time out on the road.
According to the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, "automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for those aged 3 to 33, with 43,005 (118 per day) Americans killed in 2002 alone" (Clayton, Helms, Simpson, 2006). Worldwide, vehicle accidents consist of 1.2 millions deaths per year, "behind only childhood infections and AIDS as cause of death amount people aged 5 to 30 years old" (Clayton., 2006). The annual cost of road accidents is estimated about $518 billion"(Factor, Yair, Mahalel, 2013). The fact alone of being in a moving, heavy vehicle is a danger in itself but individuals that do not wear their seat belts, talk on the phone, text, and do other distracting behavior also put themselves in even more harmful situations.
Every person who has gets behind the wheel of a motor vehicle will be involved in some sort of automobile collision at some point in his or her lifetime. Traffic accidents account for over twenty thousand deaths each year and more than ten times as many injuries. There are a number of factors that contribute to these types of collisions, however, new and evolving laws can account for a large portion of successful preventable measures. In order for laws to be changed or added for the purpose of safer roads and highways, lawmakers have to first look at what factors contribute to such unsafe conditions. The top five causes of automobile accidents that cause injury are distracted drivers, driver fatigue, drunk driving, speeding, and aggressive driving. Laws can be proposed to reduce and even eliminate each of these risks.
According to Wilson (2005), sleep deprivation can cause not only traffic accidents, but also medical conditions such as: obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabo...
Given the highly disproportionate role that these people play in drunk driving incidents, injuries, and fatalities, it would be wise to put our focus on them. The chronic drunk drivers comprise only a small percentage of all the drivers, yet they cause the most accidents.
Statistics show 16- to 17-year-old driver death rates increase with each additional passenger, which is due to distracted driving. Taking your eyes off the road for 2 (two) seconds, at 60 mph, means you have driven blindly for half the length of a football field. The risk of fatality is 3.6 times higher, when they are driving with passengers than when alone. For many years, the correlation between driving behavior and age has interested highway safety researchers and administrators. It is general knowledge that the greatest risk of motor vehicle crash...
Progressively there are more accidents happening every year as a result of drunk driving, and these drunk drivers should be greatly penalized, if you drive hammered you should get nailed! Driving drunk is considered to be one of the most severe crimes in almost every state because the driver is not only risking there life they are putting everyone else’s life in danger on the road. Every 22 minutes, someone will die in an alcohol-related traffic accident. Although you probably think that it could never happen to you, experts say everyone has a 40-percent chance of being in a crash involving alcohol use sometime in their life. Being intoxicated while driving is dangerous to your health and the well-being of others.
Many people drive for a living. They have to drive long hours on any given day. However, simply because you are a driver doesn’t mean you have to do so while you are sleepy. You can pull over and get a few hours of rest to ensure you are safe on the road.
Firstly, a physical need is when tired drivers are feeling the need to fall asleep due to fatigue; and this can compromise their safety. A driver needs to stay awake and alert when driving to avert danger and this need is satisfied by Red Bull. In fact it has become a ‘hot item amongst tired drivers stopping at gas stations.’ (Gscwandtner 2004).
In the world of higher education, students at the collegiate level are highly likely to be overwhelmed with course load, in addition to sports and extra-curricular activities (Jacobs & Dodd, 2003). These factors have the potential to lead to various amounts of sleep deprivation, and as the research of Nilsson, Sunderstrom, Karlsson et al. (2004) has shown, sleep deprivation is correlated with higher levels of fatigue, impairments in speed and accuracy as well as limitations in cognitive and physical performances. One way to cope with this fatigue that has shown to have very positive results on people of all ages is taking naps. In addition to reducing sleepiness, Milner & Cote (2008) have determined that “napping may lead to considerable benefits in terms of mood, alertness and cognitive performances”. It is these benefits that nappers seek when engaging in napping activities.
"TEENS, SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND AUTOMOBILE CRASHES . N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014 (Farm Bureau News)
Lack of sleep may cause an accident. As you get drowsy, your reaction becomes slow as much as driving drunk.
If you drink and drive, you are not only a danger to yourself but also to your passenger, other road users and pedestrians. In fact, every 30 minutes, someone in this country dies in alcohol-related crash. Every 30 minutes! And last year alone more than one million people are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes. Alcohol is a depressant that slows down body reactions and the working of the brain. Each year drunk driving is responsible for about 25% of these deaths. The risks of drinking are alcohol-related accidents and violence. The effects of alcohol are poor coordination and slurred speech, double vision, decrease of self-control loss of consciousness and death.
The main distraction of driving is cell phones. Most adults and teens will engage in texting and driving. Due to the major issue of texting and driving many campaigns have been launched, one being launched by AT&T “when it comes to texting and driving, it can wait.” This campaign has many drivers take the pledge to no longer use their phone when driving, there is an available app that will send out automatic messages to anybody that sends a while the individual is driving. When someone is driving at the rate of 55 miles per hour for only 4.6 seconds, it will equal the length of a football field, 100 yards. So, even stopping full vision from the road for a few seconds will still risk serious danger. Another cause of distracted driving is being exhausted or tired, doing so will cause a much slower reaction time. The slower reaction time causes many of the accidents that happen when people are tired. Another possibility is falling asleep behind the wheel even for a few seconds you could drift, or swerv into another lane and hit another car causing a major or fatal car accident. When taking driving classes, the students within the class will hear the saying “stay alert, stay alive.” The final major distraction of driving is eating and drinking. One of the problems of eating and drinking while driving is that it causes both a visual and manual distraction. When removing your eyes from the road many dangers will be