Sleep Deprived & Deadly
Last updated: 23/10/2006 - 15:54
A tired driver is eight times as likely to crash than a fully rested driver, acording to the British Medical Association (BMA).
It may seem like commonsense, but driving while tired, and fighting sleep for that last stretch of your journey, could land you and fellow road users in an accident and emergency room. Driving after five hours of sleep - or less - and driving between 2am and 5am, are all associated with a substantial increase in the risk of a car crash, resulting in serious injury, or death.
According to reports in the British Medical Journal - the regular magazine of the BMA - researchers identified an eightfold increased risk, if drivers reported sleepiness, an almost threefold risk for drivers who reported having five hours of sleep - or less - in the 24 hours preceding the accident, and a five fold risk for driving between 2am and 5am.
The study was carried out using details of 571 car drivers, or passengers, who were admitted to hospital, or died as a result of a car crash, in the Auckland region of New Zealand, between April 1998 and July 1999. A further 588 people driving on the region’s roads during the study period were used as a control group.
Reducing these three behaviours may reduce injuries or death by up to 19%, say the authors. It also provides some simple messages, with regard to specific driver behaviours in place of general advice against driving while sleepy, they conclude.
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