Drowsy driving may have similar effects as driving intoxicated

What is worse? Driving after a night of drinking or driving after pulling an all nighter?
According to a 2010 data survey taken by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 16.5 percent of fatal car accidents involve drowsy driving.

More than one-in-four drivers admitted to driving while they were “so sleepy that they had a hard time keeping their eyes open.”

Findings from this study suggest that drivers ages 16 to 24 are nearly twice as likely to be involved in a crash involving drowsy driving than drivers age 40 to 59.

And sleep deprivation can be just as dangerous as driving under the influence.
Data from the National Sleep Foundation suggests that operating a vehicle after being awake for 20 hours is equivalent to having a BAC of .08 percent.

The previous crash analysis taken in 2008 estimated that 2.4 percent of crashes involved drowsy driving, making the jump to 17 percent surprising.

“All researchers think that numbers were truly higher than 2.4 percent and expected a greater impact, but they weren’t expecting it to be this high,” said Dan Bleier, the communications coordinator at the AAA Foundation.

The question remains, is the effect of drowsy driving as devastating as the effect of driving drunk?

“Granted, the number for DUI fatalities are higher, but drowsy driving is still a significant problem that has been kept under the radar. When you look at the symptoms of drowsy driving, just like alcohol, it can impair a driver’s reaction time, their judgment and their general awareness on the road,” Bleier said.

Records from the IU Police Department do not match the results of the AAA
Foundation’s study.

Lt. Craig Munroe said there have been three accidents in Bloomington since January 2008 that have been caused by students drowsy driving.

One accident included a student who had pulled an all nighter and was driving at about 5 a.m. after having just completed a paper run. The student said she does not remember how her car struck a tree after drifting off the road but believes that it was due to fatigue.

The mismatching figures between the IUPD records and the AAA Foundation’s study may be due to the small area that the IUPD is responsible for
covering.

“Here people are not driving very far on campus, we cover a small area and most students aren’t going a long distance,” Munroe said.

Even though accidents due to alcohol impairment are more prevalent on the IU campus, Bleier advised students to get proper sleep before operating a vehicle and to be especially careful when taking long car trips home for winter break.

“It’s one thing to pull an all nighter for an exam, but it’s another thing to drive from 7
a.m. to 7 p.m.,” Bleier said. “Falling asleep for your exam may lead to a bad grade but falling asleep while driving could end up with somebody loosing their life.”