Drowsy Driving Research

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.

On September 9, a man driving a Ford Mustang going roughly 70 to 80 miles per hour on Homestead Pass crashed into the flatbed trailer of a semi-truck. The man, who was seriously injured and died several days after the accident, may have fallen asleep at the wheel, which would explain his speed and why he did not stop before hitting the trailer.

In my PSA, I will attempt to make drivers aware of the dangers of drowsy driving. My PSA will also serve as a call to action which urges its viewers to avoid driving while fatigued. My PSA will be targeting adult drivers who most likely have never been presented with any information about the dangers of drowsy driving. If my audience were composed of children, I would be reluctant to show potentially disturbing footage from the aftermath car crashes. However, the fact that my audience is mature means that I am free to make my PSA a little dark and emotional. My PSA will include both statistics about the dangers of drowsy driving, and footage from the aftermath of a serious crash. I believe the often-overlooked nature of my topic means that

According to the CDC, driving under the influence of alcohol causes one death every 51 minutes in the United States. While the driving public may not know this exact statistic, they are aware of the general effects that this legal drug has on driving. However, many are completely in the dark about other drugs that also impair one's ability to drive. These are prescription and over the counter (OTC) drugs. These drugs also slow down reaction times, impair judgement, and cause drowsiness. Some people mistakenly believe that only alcohol and illegal recreational drugs affect driving. Others are willfully negligent about driving under the influence of prescription and OTC drugs.

I remember one time over the summer I watched this tv show, the main character wanted to see what it was like to nap and drive, drink and drive and, smoke and drive. The effects and damage was quite astonishing really, drinking and driving was in the middle of damage, smoking and driving was the least damage and napping was the most. I wanted to try to see what napping can do to you when you drive. So one time I was going to my recruiters office and I closed my eyes to simulate napping. Literally about three seconds later I was in the oncoming lane and was scared to death of what might have happened if I really did sleep. After that I never did anything like that

Sometimes life can just be a big mess with our hectic schedules. Although today’s society emphasizes a “fast and busy” life in order to increase our productivity as Canadian citizens, it can at times have the opposite effect when citizens get severely injured or even die due to impaired driving. To start, it is important to define what impaired driving is. First of all, impaired driving is simply driving with a sort of handicap whether it is through the influence of drugs, alcohol, or even mood such as excessive excitement or rage.1 Furthermore, it could also be anything that distracts us in general such as multitasking while driving, talking in the cellphone, or looking at the scenery outside and neglecting to pay proper attention to driving.

Driving is a complex exercise involving specific motor, cognitive, perceptual and decision making skills (George, 2004). To drive in a competent manner involves continued concentration and attentiveness which can be challenging for drivers suffering from sleep deprivation (George, 2004). This essay will argue that sleep deprivation impairs effective driving by reducing alertness and increasing response time. Williamson and Feyer (2000) conducted a series of tests to discover the effects sleep-deprivation and inebriation. They concluded that fatigue resulting from sleep deprivation is an important factor likely to compromise performance of speed and accuracy tasks, both of which are crucial for driving. While this study by Williamson et al.

As stated earlier, the main purpose of HOS is to diminish fatigue, which increases accidents caused by drivers. Based on various studies, between the hours of midnight and six in the morning, the risk of fatigue escalates with the total length of the driver’s trip. There are three main components related to driver fatigue: Circadian rhythm effects, sleep deprivation and cumulative effects, and lastly industrial or “time-on-task” fatigue.

ABSTRACT Driver fatigue resulting from sleep deprivation or sleep disorders is an important factor in the increasing number of the accidents on today’s roads. Driving a vehicle involves coordination of the locomotor system along with the healthy function of the brain. When the driver feels drowsy, it may unsettle the balance and may lead to erratic driving causing potential accidents. The main aim of the driver drowsiness detection system is to design a monitoring system that processes the image to indicate the current driving aptitude of the driver and raise a warning alarm if the driver is fatigued.

It is difficult to constantly get sufficient sleep due to work and family related circumstances, and an estimated 15-30% of traffic accidents are directly related to driver drowsiness (Howard, Jackson, Kennedy, Swann, Barnes & Pierce, 2007). Sleep deprivation has been demonstrated to strongly impair mood, cognitive performance, and motor function as a result of decreasing mental impairment (Durmer & Dinges, 2005). Therefore, it will be argued that sleep deprivation substantially interferes with driving performance. This is based on the evidence given by Williamson and Feyer (2005) which found that after long periods without sleep, driving performance reached equivalent to those

Driving under the influence of alcohol brings fatalities. The National Highway, traffic, and Safety administration have the mandate of carrying out research geared towards achieving safety in the American highways. According to the National Highway, traffic Safety Administration (2013), alcoholic impairment whilst driving depends on the driver’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC). According to National Highway, traffic Safety Administration (2013), a BAC higher or equal to.08 g/dl renders the driver impaired and thus should not operate any vehicle or any machinery in this state. Therefore, deaths’ arising out of scenarios involving an alcohol-impaired driver brings forth alcoholic impaired fatalities. According to National Highway, traffic Safety Administration (2013), such fatalities does not occur solely on the notion that alcohol impairment caused it, but also that a driver harboring a BAC of 0.8 or higher was involved in the accident. In 2013, NHTSA determined that alcohol impairment resulted to about 10,070 deaths. This number amounted to about 30 percent of the total number of traffic related deaths in that year. The numbers above indicate that each fatality took place after every 52 minutes throughout the course of the year 2013. Alcohol

Driving under the influence of alcohol is considered a prime component to road accidents. Consumption of alcohol impairs judgement of an individual making the driver unfit for driving a motor vehicle or operating other form of machinery (Cefery, 21). Although Coloradoans are more aware of the issues regarding drunk driving than they were in the

These measures are obviously important since drivers must maintain proper lane position to avoid vehicles in nearby lanes and objects located on the side of the roadway. The purpose of this section is to discuss various measures used in the past to evaluate driver drowsiness while a subject is actually behind the wheel of an automobile (either simulated or on the

Traffic related accidents happen frequently and the main cause for this is the drowsy driver. Drowsiness of driver means sleeping at the wheel, that means, sleeping for small amount of time while the driver is driving an automobile. The main reason behind this drowsiness related accidents or a crash is long and hectic hours of continuous driving. When the driver is drowsy, it affects his/her alertness mentally, which decreases his/her ability to operate on vehicle properly and increases the risk of accident or mishap to occur. The drowsiness related accidents have caused a lot of damage to nature as well as human life which could lead to death of the person or a person can become physically or mentally handicapped and many other losses like

In the world of driving, many elements can affect the safety of a driver behind the wheel. Take makeup, for instance. A person that is driving while applying some form of cosmetics is not focusing on the road, or, much less, the environment around the vehicle like pedestrians or cautionary signs. In study done by the NHTSA in 2015, distracted drivers killed 3,477 people, which just goes to show that careless and distracted driving is incredibly dangerous, and yet, there is a larger threat to drivers: drivers under the influence. Every year, around 10,220 people die in alcohol and drug related crashes- that’s an person killed every 51 minutes of every day (cdc). Those numbers are incredibly high and should be a clear pointer that drugs and alcohol are mind and body altering to the point where they are highly dangerous to use when driving. Whether it be drugs or alcohol, driving under the influence affects everything from driver’s mind and physical abilities to other drivers that come in contact with drivers under the influence.