Tips to Prevent Accidents Caused by Driving Drowsy

With more and more Americans getting fewer hours sleep per night, the following bad news statistics shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that approximately 100,000 police-reported crashes annually involve drowsiness and/or fatigue as a principal factor in causing the accident.

Those crashes result in an estimated 1,500 fatalities and 71,000 injuries each year, and an annual monetary loss of approximately $12.5 billion.

A recent survey by Farmers Insurance found that more than 10 percent of drivers admit to having fallen asleep at the wheel, while more than 20 percent say they have momentarily dozed while driving.

What is the solution? There are a couple of common sense things we all can do:

1. Get enough sleep when you are NOT behind the wheel. Experts say the average person needs between 7 and 8 hours sleep – teenagers reportedly need more.
2. Don’t drive if you are drowsy. Get someone else to drive you, or get some sleep before you get behind the wheel.

According to the Farmers survey, almost three times as many men (15.9 percent) as women (5.8 percent) said they had fallen asleep while driving. Those ages 55 to 64 had the highest percentage of any age group surveyed (13.7 percent).

Tactics to fight drowsiness

Now a new survey shows some of the tactics drivers resort to in an effort to fight drowsiness on the road. The most popular tactics those surveyed said they have used when they have become sleepy while they were driving were:

• Stop driving or switching drivers (59.5 percent)
• Open the windows or turn on the air conditioning (59.0 percent)
• Listen to the radio or CDs (57.7 percent)
• Stop to eat or drink (46.3 percent)
• Drink caffeine (42.3 percent)
• Singing to themselves (31.7 percent)
• Splashing water in their faces (18.4 percent)
• Slapping, hitting, or pinching themselves (a self-abusive 16.1 percent).

For more information, visit any of the following helpful sites:

http://www.drivers.com/article/680/

http://www.ehow.com/how_4488661_keep-falling-asleep-driving-alone.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_4860629_stay-awake-driving.html