Drowsy Driving

“Automobiles are not ferocious.... it is man who is to be feared,” as Robbins B. Stoeckel remarked, enumerates a simple, yet fundamental concept- a vehicle in itself is a relatively safe, that is, until you put a person behind the controls. Further adding to the danger is the ever prevalent risk of a fellow driver being impaired by the usage of alcohol; perhaps the only thing that may make such a situation even more difficult and dangerous is one who is under the legal alcohol drinking age. Fewer situations are more life threatening than when an underage driver has been illegally consuming alcohol, yet persists in the belief that he or she retains the ability to drive safely. Thoughts along this line are foolish at best and deadly at

The facts are plain and simple, that alcohol and driving do not mix. About three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol related crash at some time in their lives. Every single injury and death caused by drunk driving is totally preventable. To curb this national travesty, concerned Americans need to examine the problems, the effects, and the solutions to drunk driving. First of all, America has had a problem with drunk driving since Ford perfected the assembly line. Alcoholism is a problem in and of itself, but combined with driving can have a wide range of effects. The consequences of this reckless behavior can include a first time DUI or licenses suspension; a small fender bender, or worst of all a deadly crash. Most

“In the hands of an impaired driver, a vehicle becomes a murderous weapon.” ( ) Everyone can think of someone who has driven impaired, or even maybe you have done it yourself. The fact that one can think of someone who has driven impaired is a problem. Too many people are getting behind the wheel after drinking, smoking; or are not paying attention while they drive. Impaired driving continues to a problem although strides have been made to make a difference. There are many different types of impaired driving, each that have their own consequences. These types, and consequences will be explored in this essay.

As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years, upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of our projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in their computation. It is true. There are not enough drivers who drive under the influence. In the year 2001, MADD Online approximated that only one in ten drivers, a mere 25 million, drove drunk, and, consequently these drivers were the ones significantly more likely to be involved in a crash of some sort, but why shouldn’t we level the playing field? (1)

According to Vila (2006), data through the year 2003 indicated that more officers were killed by “unattended adverse events than during the commission of felonies.” Fatigue resulting from reduced sleep, both in duration and quality, is a significant factor in unintentional injuries and fatalities in the law enforcement community. Two hundred eighty seven (287) of the officers involved in the study reported being involved in a motor vehicle collision during the follow up period. Fatigue and drowsiness resulting from sleep disorders is believed to be a contributing factor in a significant number of these collisions. Across 2009-2010, more than a third of line of duty deaths were attributed to motor vehicle crashes (NLEMF, 2010). Sleepiness and fatigue are major factors in motor vehicle collisions and drivers suffering from excessive sleepiness are not only involved in more collisions, but the collisions are often more serious and result in more severe injuries (Drake, 2010). While, officers involved in the study regarded drowsy driving to be as serious and as dangerous as drunk driving, almost half of the participants reported falling asleep while driving 1-2 times a month due to excessive sleepiness (JAMA, 2011). The loss of only two hours of sleep over just a one week period was found to have the same decrease in performance comparable with individuals after 24 hours of staying awake.

One can say that the modern movement for holding drivers who take to the road under the under influence of alcohol was created by the death of fourteen year old Cari Lightner on the third of May 1980 in Fair Oaks California. She and her friend were on their way to a local carnival walking in the bike lane where she was hit by a driver who had swerved into the lane the impact threw her 125 feet. It was later revealed that the driver had only minutes before had been drinking in a local bar. Disturbingly he already had three convictions for what was then called drunk driving and did not stop after hitter her. Even with rapid medical intervention Cari was unable to survive due to multiple traumatic injuries.

Drunk driving is a painfully real problem in our country today. Traffic deaths numbered 37,461 in 2016, and 10,497 of those had alcohol to blame (“USDOT”). That means that 28% of all traffic deaths in 2016 involved a drunk

Now-a-days driver drowsiness is one of the major causes for many motor vehicle catastrophes and it can impair the human brain as much as an alcohol or drugs can. It can be due to fatigue, lack of sleep, driving for a long time, circadian low rhythm and use of medication. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), over 1.5 million people die per year and over 40 million people have severe injuries. From the statistics, we can conclude that there is an urge for developing a system that can detect drowsiness and alert the driver before any hazard happens.

People with any level of Narcolepsy should have all of their driving privileges revoked, as well as any privileges of operating heavy machinery or complex machinery. Narcolepsy, characterized by the occurrence of excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), which is the most disabling feature of the disease (Ueki, Y., Hayashida, K., Komada, Y., Nakamura, M., Kobayashi, M., Iimori, M., & Inoue, Y. 2014). Narcolepsy is exacerbated when the patient is physically inactive, such as driving a car, reading, watching television, or sitting while being in control of machines. Narcolepsy is not something many people would want to have, although sudden uncontrollable sleep periods do sound nice. Narcolepsy is a very serious condition that can be deadly in

Last May, my coworker Alex was killed by a 17 year old drunk driver on his way to visit family. Everyone, including myself spent months greiving the loss of someone we consedered family. After losing someone I loved so dearly I decided to make a change instead of sitting around mourning my friend.

One of the newsbreaks that I was particularly interested is the one in Schultz & Schultz (2016), textbook “Don’t Look – The Driver Behind You May Be Sleep” (P.266). This newsbreak is about Truck Drivers; that according to Schultz & Schultz (2016) “78% of them having a sleep disorder called obstructive sleep apnea.” (P.266) The reason why I am interested in this newsbreak is because it effects all of us, we all drive on the road, and having someone next to you on the road being sleep deprived is scary thought. The truck driver could lose control of the vehicle and create a major accident where multiple lives could be lost.

Hello everybody, my name is Jessie Thomas and I’m here to discuss the topic of drowsy driving, sense as truck drivers, that’s essentially your job, to drive. Lets start off with some statistics. “According to the National Sleep Foundations 2005 Sleep in America poll, 60% -about 168 million people-say that they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy in the past year. “ Also, “Four percent-about eleven million drivers-admit that they have had an accident or near accident because they dozed off or were too tired to drive.” Eleven million people, think about that for a moment.

At one point or another in the course of their lives, most people in Missouri, and elsewhere, have been drowsy. Although this sleepy state is usually just an indication that a person is fatigued, drowsiness can be highly dangerous for motorists. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that drowsy drivers are involved in up to 6,000 fatal collisions each year. The risk of being involved in fatigue-related accidents may be greater for commercial drivers, who often spend long hours driving throughout the state, and across the country.

Road traffic injuries are estimated to be the 5th leading cause of death within the next 15 years, with the current yearly death toll reaching 1.3 million (Gresser, 2014; ASIRT, 2016). The average person is generally awake for around 16 hours a day, however sometimes within busy lives sleep may become a last priority between family and work, and thus extending the period a person is awake (Williamson & Feyer, 2000). In this essay, it will be argued that sleep deprivation negatively influences driving performance, as it has been found that driving for long periods of time or after sleep deprivation leads to poor driving performance as levels of alertness are low. Two empirical studies have been chosen to support this argument, by Otmani, Pebayle, Roge, and Muzet (2004) and Williamson and Feyer (2000). The general findings of both studies agreed that performance was impaired in sleep deprived subjects (Williamson et al. 2000; Otmani, Pebayle, Roge, & Muzet, 2004).

One of the biggest concerns on roadways is keeping them safe. Indeed, transportation is a vital and reliable source for the logistics system, it’s a major concern. The responsibility of a driver can turn, tarnish when drivers experience fatigue. Hours-of-service regulations try to prevent drivers off the public roadways during these times. Over the years, the system has changed and updated to fit new technology. Consequently, regulations put limits on drivers to ensure that one stays awake, but are the laws improving for driver safety or just another rigorous law enforcement?