Texas citizens are living busier lives and not always getting the recommended amount of sleep. One growing problem that experts are seeing on the road is fatigued driving. If drivers get behind the wheel when they’re overly tired, they’re three times more likely to be involved in a motor vehicle accident.
Drowsy driving affects a person’s driving abilities
As a personal injury attorney may explain, the lack of sleep can decrease in a person’s driving abilities. This decrease is very similar to the impairment that a person experiences when they’re intoxicated. Both drowsy and drunk drivers have slower reaction times, poor judgment, less attention on the roadway and the tendency to tailgate.
To help people put into perspective just how dangerous drowsy driving is, experts did a comparison of drowsy driving and the different levels of comparable intoxicated driving. The most notable finding is the fact that a driver who gets behind the wheel after being awake for 20 hours has impairment at a level similar to a person with a blood alcohol level of 0.08, which is over the legal limit. With this comparison, it becomes clear just how dangerous driving is when a person is fatigued.
More prone to accidents
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that at least 100,000 vehicle accidents happen every year as a result of a drowsy driver. This makes drowsy driving a big contributor to the total number of accidents that happen throughout the nation every year.
It’s important for people to truly understand how lack of sleep affects their body and their driving abilities. A driver who gets behind the wheel of a vehicle while lacking sleep could cause an accident and be found negligent, making them responsible for the victims’ injuries and damages.