Many people lost an hour of sleep as clocks were set forward an hour for the start of Daylight Saving Time. In case that lost hour of sleep seems insignificant, consider this: According to the National Transportation Safety Board, there historically has been a 17 percent increase in crashes across the nation on the Monday following the time change.
Safety advocates designated March 3-10 as National Sleep Awareness Week to call attention to year-round problems caused by sleep deprivation. Experts at the NTSB say that drowsy driving or sleep deprivation cause as many as one million crashes and near-misses each year.
The NTSB has been concerned about the issue for years. Recent high profile collisions in which fatigue was a contributing factor have raised awareness about the dangers of drowsy driving.
Federal regulations for the trucking and aviation industries have been changed in recent years to address the need for drivers to be rested. New “hours of service” regulations limit the hours that truckers and pilots can drive or fly between mandatory rest periods. But there is no way to regulate the number of hours a driver spends behind the wheel of a passenger vehicle.
Studies conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and other organizations have concluded that a sleep-deprived driver is potentially as dangerous as an impaired driver. In fact, the risk of being involved in an accident doubles when a driver loses just one to two hours of the optimal eight hours of sleep. The risk of being involved in a collision jumps four to five times for a driver operating on five hours of sleep or less.
If the recent loss of an hour of sleep caused you to feel disoriented or drowsy, try to remember that the next time you plan an extended road trip. Be sure to get plenty of rest the night before and keep in mind that other drivers may be sleep-deprived.
If you have been injured in a New York or New Jersey car accident, you could be entitled to compensation. Contact the New York/New Jersey accident and injury attorneys at Ginarte Gonzalez Winograd L.L.P., to discuss your legal options. For your free consultation, call 888-446-2783 or fill out our online contact form.