AAA: Tired driving as dangerous as drunken driving

<p>A new report by AAA finds that driving while tired or drowsy can be just as dangerous as driving while under the influence of drugs or&nbsp;alcohol.&nbsp;</p>

News 12 Staff

Feb 8, 2018, 11:04 PM

Updated 2,278 days ago

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A new report by AAA finds that driving while tired or drowsy can be just as dangerous as driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
The report used actual footage from dashboard cameras and studied drivers’ faces for signs of drowsiness in the minutes leading up to a crash. The report found that drowsiness was involved in 10 percent of accidents. That is eight times more often than federal statistics indicated.
Dr. Divya Gupta of JFK Medical Center diagnoses sleep disorders. She says that drivers have to understand that there is no substitute for sleep.
“These measures to keep going - Rolling down the windows, slapping yourself and turning up the AC, they are not effective ways to reduce your risk of getting into an accident,” Gupta says.
Missing just two or three hours of sleep makes a drowsy driver as dangerous as a drunken driver according to the study. AAA says that drivers who find themselves getting drowsy should pull over and take a nap before getting back on the road.
The AAA study analyzed videos from 700 crashes for the study. The full report can be viewed at the AAA website.


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