Don’t Snooze and Cruise! Focus Points I. Claim: I am making a claim of value. II. Specific Purpose: To persuade my classmates that driving while sleep-deprived is just as dangerous as drinking and driving, and it shouldn’t be done. III. Thesis: Although it is believed that driving while drowsy is not a threat, it can cause some serious damage. Attention: 72,000. That’s how many crashes occurred in 2013 due to drowsy driving. This number is in the US alone. Drowsy driving is a big issue, and it hasn’t been stressed enough. We’ve all heard about the risks of drinking and driving, but not many people advocate driving with a healthy amount of sleep. Having recently read an article on this topic, I was shocked by how dangerous this really is, …show more content…
One of the biggest problems with people driving while sleepy or tired is that they think they can make it to their destination okay. They don’t think something can actually happen to them. B. Some think “oh well I have about 10 minutes left to get there. Why stop now? I can make it.” This is not reasonable. Anything can happen. Accidents are called accidents for a reason. - IV. People who have experienced accidents with driving have testified that sleep is one of the most important things when it comes to driving. “Sleep is a bigger priority for me now,” says a nurse in Cincinnati who fell asleep behind the wheel several years ago after working an overnight shift. She crossed the double line while driving home and caused an accident. Sleep is not a luxury, Roberts now knows. "It's a necessity," she says. - V. Some people might say they can make the drive okay, they say they’re not that sleepy, they say we’re almost there, what’s the point of stopping now, or driving while drowsy isn’t a big deal, but this is actually a big deal. However, being drowsy and sleep deprived can have the same effects as someone who has had something to drink before driving. A. Drinking and driving compared to drowsy driving both cause the driver to have a slower reaction time, lack of focus, and lack of
This pattern often encourages people to drink more to keep the buzz going." ( Net Biz Mentor ). When people get like that they usually get a little bolder and want to do normal tasks and routines like driving a motorized vehicle. The effects of alcohol result in poor coordination, slurred speech, double vision, decrease of self-control, lost of consciousness and maybe even death.
Driving under the influence has affected many people's lives and families. Today I would like to talk to you about the problems of drinking and driving, and why it is a concern for all of us. Driving under the influence is one of the most common and dangerous situations you can put yourself or someone else in. The fact is that drinking and driving is a huge deal and can leave a long trail of broken dreams and hearts. If you drink and drive, not only are you putting yourself at risk, but your passengers and the pedestrians outside of your vehicle. According to the most recent statistics by the National Commission Against Drunk Driving states that 17,000 Americans die each year in alcohol- related traffic crashes and 600,000 Americans
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.
Driver fatigue may not be illegal but it is lethal. Fatigue is a discreet killer that occurs for drivers no matter their age, their driving experience, how long the trip is or the time of day. In 2012, there were more fatigue related crashes than drink driving crashes in NSW. When someone doesn’t sleep for the previous 17 years before driving, they have an equal effect to someone who drives with a blood alcohol level of 0.05. A study by Nordbakke and Sagberg in 2007 concluded that drivers had a standard knowledge on preventative actions and the factors influencing the risk of falling asleep. But, despite this knowledge, drivers continue to drive on the road whilst tired.
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.
Obesity is a significant contributing risk factor for a higher prevalence of fatigue and excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in the general population. Obesity is also linked to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). These associations represent significant occupational hazards during the performance of complex tasks such as, piloting an aircraft, driving trucks, and operating public transit vehicles, which require workers to have constant focus, attention and vigilance (Dinges et al., 1997; Dagan et al., 2006; Cohen et al., 2010). Therefore, even a slight increase in risk could have substantial impact on the population attributable risk, given the incidence rate of fatigue related crashes and the high prevalence of obesity among drivers (Dixon et al., 2007). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) provided estimates that approximately 20% of all serious injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes are associated with drowsy driving (Garbarino et al., 2001). The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) gave evidence that over 30% of truck driver fatal crashes are fatigue
Impaired driving is often associated with drunk driving. However, drowsiness is also an impaired state because it compromises alertness, reaction time, and judgment. Unlike being under the influence of alcohol, drowsiness is a natural state and therefore affects more drivers. It is just as dangerous as drunk driving, and perhaps more so, because the driver is about to fall asleep at the wheel. Staying alert is a matter of life and death. Here are six tips for staying alert while driving at night:
Alcohol is a good thing but can be a person’s worst nightmare at the same time. “Alcohol is a substance that reduces the function of the brain, impairing thinking, reasoning and muscle coordination. All these abilities are essential to operating a vehicle safely” (NHTSA). Driving requires you to be fully focused and in order to do that you shouldn’t drink and drive. Each year there are many deaths that contribute to drinking while intoxicated. “In 2016, there were 2,017
Have you ever watch people on the road, driving side to side that you can assume that the driver is drunk? Alcohol is a substance that reduces the function of the brain, impairing thinking, reasoning and muscle coordination. All these abilities are essential to operating a vehicle safely (reference 3). Millions of people in worldwide, do drink after drive. Most of them say or might say “Nothing happened, I got home safely, and nobody got hurt?” Just because you made it home safely does not mean that it is a right decision. Every day, almost 29 people in the United States die in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes-that’s one person every 50 minutes in 2016(Reference1). When a drunk individual makes a decision to get on the
Road crashes can be caused by many different factors. These factors range and vary from driver carelessness to the condition of the road. One thing that is hardly taken into consideration is the mental state of the driver. Some drivers are prone to repeated episodes of risky driving (RD) and are over-represented in crashes and related morbidity. These cases of high risk driving can be attributed to the psychological condition of the driver, the age, and also the influence of alcohol or drugs on the driver. I am going to discuss how sleep patterns can affect the mental conditions of drivers and how frequent it is the cause of some road crashes.
I choose this particular study because it compares the effects of moderate sleep deprivation to the effects of alcohol intoxication in how both decrease road safety and industrial performance. I see this correlation meaningful and interesting especially since it involves the intercommunication of two different sciences: psychology and medicine.
“The National Sleep Foundation states that drowsiness is very similar to alcohol impairment and can impair driving performance as much or more so than alcohol’ according to a report on the topic. Being sleepy can slow reaction times, limit visions, and create lapses in judgement and delays in
Every year almost one point three million citizens are involved in a fatal car accident. That’s almost 3,287 deaths every single day. In addition, on average, twenty to fifty million people are injured or disabled. Lastly, the majority of automobile accidents every year involve youth or young adults from ages fifteen to forty-four. Now, some may ask why are there so many accidents occurring every year? Well, the main cause of these avoidable tragedies is impaired driving. Majority of the public may only associate impaired driving to the overconsumption of alcohol while driving. However, the exact definition of the word "impaired" is a diminished, weakened or damaged ability. This can be due to the result of advancing age, drugs, emotions, fatigue, inexperience and ultimately alcohol.
In the United States of America over 10,000 people die each year from accidents involving an alcohol-impaired driver and according to CBS news, that number is on the rise. First of all, drunk driving is the criminal act of driving while being impaired, alcoholically. When alcohol is consumed it is absorbed into the bloodstream. In most situations alcohol slows down the brain's ability to control the body, reflexes are also affected by this. If a driver is impaired his or her’s ability to track moving objects are affected along with the ability to control the vehicle, that can be extremely dangerous Drunk driving is a controversial topic because, some people think there should be more laws to prevent it while other believe the laws should be left alone.
Various investigation show that driver’s drowsiness is one of the main cause of road accidents. The development of technology for preventing drowsiness at the time is a major challenge in the field of accidents avoidance. The advance in computing technology has provided the means for building intelligent vehicle system. The purpose of this study is to detect the drowsiness in driver to prevent accidents and to improve safety on the highway. The aim of this project is to design an Accident Prevention System which helps in preventing or avoiding accidents.