Big Deal Driving

According to studies, 86 percent of students at colleges and universities are considered commuter students. Community college students often have miles to drive before reaching their classes each morning.

 

Drowsy Driving as Fatal
as Drunk Driving

A large percentage of 18-25 year olds are more likely to drive drowsy compared to other age groups. A large part of this group consists of college students. Studies show that college students average about six hours of sleep a night. An alternative study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports that people who sleep only six to seven hours each night, opposed to 8 or more, are twice as likely to be involved in a crash.

Drowsy driving can be just as fatal as drunk driving, but is a less addressed issue because there is no standardized way to test for drowsiness. Both alcohol and drowsiness slow reaction time, decrease awareness, impair judgment and increase the risk of crash.

Sources:

www.autoblog.com/2008/05/29/drowsy-driving-is-equal-to-drunk-driving/

http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/1875/Commuter-Students.html

www.apa.org/monitor/2009/02/dangerous.html

Drowsy Driving Prevention Week

November 2-8, 2009

 

 

 

Sleep Quiz

(AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety)

 

17 hours of sustained wakefulness produces performance impairment equal to 0.05% BAC; after 24 hours, impairment is equal to 0.10% BAC.
A BAC of 0.08% is considered legally drunk in every state.

Source: http://drowsydriving.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/DDPW-DrowsyDriving.pdf