Driving while drowsy

Saturday, April 11, 2009 | 2:07 a.m.

Safety advocates see an increasing trend of crashes linked to tired drivers. So-called drowsy drivers are involved in at least 100,000 accidents that result in more than 1,500 deaths and 40,000 injuries a year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Researchers don’t attribute the high number to sleep disorders. They say the real issue is that Americans don’t see a problem with driving when they are tired. A recent study by the National Sleep Foundation found that fewer than 30 percent of all adults get the recommended eight hours of sleep a night. More than half of American adults had driven while they were drowsy in the past year, and 28 percent had actually fallen asleep behind the wheel.

Studies show that people who drive after being awake for 18 hours perform no differently than drivers with a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol concentration, the legal limit.

“Years ago, we didn’t think anything of getting in a car after having a few drinks,” Carol Ash, medical director of a New Jersey sleep program, recently told USA Today. “Sleep deprivation has the same impact. Your judgment becomes impaired, whether you realize it or not.”

Being tired can lead to “microsleep,” short sleep ranging up to 30 seconds. Cornell University researchers convey the problem of inadvertently falling asleep behind the wheel with this illustration: A driver going 55 miles per hour covers the length of a football field in about four seconds. Falling asleep even for a few seconds could be disastrous.

Some states are considering strengthening their laws to specifically ban falling asleep at the wheel. There are laws on the books that outlaw reckless and inattentive driving, so we’re not sure whether a specific law addressing drowsy drivers is essential. What is certainly warranted is a serious public awareness campaign that educates people about the dangers of drowsy driving.