Falling Asleep When Driving

We read too often of road accidents where a driver falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the vehicle, often resulting in severe injuries or deaths. An interesting study in France has shown that people continue to drive even when they know that they’re sleepy, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Over 13,000 middle-aged drivers were asked “in the past year, have you ever driven while sleepy?” and got a 36% “yes” response, with 0.2% replying “yes, more than once a week”. Those who responded “yes, a few times a year” were over 1½ times as likely to have been involved in a serious road traffic accident than those who said they never drove when sleepy. Those replying “once a month or more often” were nearly 3 times as likely to have had a serious accident.

The lesson here is that, if all drivers who recognize they are sleepy can be persuaded to stop driving, a significant number of severe accidents can be avoided. It’s just a matter of getting the word out, and helping such drivers take the necessary steps – pull over, let someone else drive, or take a refreshing nap. Trying to fight sleepiness, opening all the windows, or putting on the air conditioner full blast is not going to be effective. Stopping, and sleeping before resuming driving, is the only good answer.

Commercial break:  Driving can actually be dangerous under the best of conditions, particularly in bigger vehicles, so be sure to have van insurance.  You can even find commercial van insurance specifically designed to protect drivers of these multi-passenger automobiles.