Let's just sleep on it

Sleep is something no college student isn't accustomed to forfeiting when it comes between them and studying, partying or driving their long treks to and from their home towns. In fact, we're all too familiar with all-nighters in one way or another.\nNow, while being tired certainly isn't the least of our worries when we're going out, perhaps it should be. The gate toward the slippery slope has been opened.\nIn New Jersey, Maggie's Law recently went into effect. The letter of the statute, according to CNN.com, states that prosecutors can charge a motorist with vehicular homicide, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine, in the event of a deadly crash if there is evidence the accident was caused by sleepiness. \nThe law was named after a college student who was killed in 1997 by a driver who had apparently been awake for approximately 30 hours. \nThis sounds like a great idea, especially since according to the National Sleep Foundation's 2002 Sleep in America survey, about 51 percent of America's adult drivers are hitting the highways with a little bit of the sandman in their eyes.\nHowever, while the sleepy/drunk driving parallel has been driven home before, to what extent can we legislate our awareness of this problem when there is no BAC equivalent to lacking Z's? Though noble in intent, doesn't this give a little too much leeway to prosecutors to increase the ante in criminal cases where certain amounts of evidence may not be available?\nThis seems to be a case of political pandering under the guise of appealing to a certain down-home morality. Much like the politicians who have made it their aim to use certain Florida families as smoke-and-mirror tricks, playing with lives for the sake of political gain, the New Jersey legislature is taking the opportunity to pass some fairly nonthreatening legislation for the sake of adding a notch on their re-election campaign tickets. Their use of drama to create the appearance of a socially conscious political system is less than comforting.\nThe police have no power to pull over baggy-eyed motorists, leaving the charge of driving-while-tired up to the prejudice of the arresting officer. Furthermore, it opens the Pandora's Box of interstate pressure to adopt similar statutes, similar to those of the seatbelt campaigns.\nThe critique is simple. This is a law that plays with voters' emotions while actually doing nothing to prevent the harmful consequences of driving while tired. When people choose to get behind the wheel while sleepy, it's never on a whim. It's often due to the desperation that our restless American work ethic has engendered. If the goal of the legislature is to prevent the harm, this law doesn't accomplish that. At its best, it simply points a "wrath of the gods" finger at those who sadly succumb to the pressures of poor time management.