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This doesn't suprise me at all especially after working night shift for five years. Driving during morning rush hour is challenging enough when you're wide awake. It's a nationwide problem. Let's be careful out there.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4444533,00.html
Colorado motorists asleep at the wheel
State ranks sixth in U.S. for fatalities from drowsy driving
By Carolyn Barry and Burt Hubbard, Rocky Mountain News
February 6, 2006
Colorado's roads are among the deadliest in the U.S. when it comes to drivers succumbing to a dangerous habit: drifting off to sleep behind the wheel.
The family of one victim and some highway officials say the problem calls for more education. They hope to awaken the public's awareness about drowsy driving.
Colorado ranks high in the percentage of people killed by motorists who fell asleep while driving.
In 2004, 54 people died in 49 fatigue-related accidents in Colorado, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That represents 8 percent of the 594 fatal crashes in Colorado in 2004 - more than double the national average of 3 percent.
Colorado, along with Texas and Maine, had the sixth-highest percentage of fatal drowsy driving accidents in the country. Wyoming led the nation with 13 percent.
The results can be instantaneous - and irreversible.
Cyclist Scott Kornfield, 28, was killed in the early morning hours on Memorial Day last year when he was struck by a Boulder teenager who fell asleep at the wheel on U.S. 36 near Broomfield while returning from a late-night party.
"You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody in America who has never dozed off for even a fraction of a second behind the wheel, and yet that's all it takes to have something disastrous happen," Kornfield's father, Gary, said recently. "I don't think it's something my wife and I really thought about until our son was killed."
Fatigue difficult to measure
The federal government has conservatively estimated that about 100,000 crashes a year are caused by driver fatigue, resulting in 71,000 people being injured and 1,500 fatalities. But safety officials said those figures are probably low because of the difficulty of determining fatigue as the cause of an accident, especially when alcohol or other factors are involved.
"The statistics undoubtedly underestimate the true nature of the problem," said Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. "Drowsy driving, definitely, is one of the largest and less appreciated problems in traffic safety."
Tim Harris, Gov. Bill Owens' highway safety representative, said that while the figures on drowsy driving deaths in Colorado are significant, state funding is focused on seat belt use and drunken driving.
Harris and other traffic officials aren't sure why Colorado ranked high in such crashes, although the state's rural character could be a factor.
National studies show that the problem is widespread.
Sixty percent of respondents involved in a 2005 National Sleep Foundation survey said they had driven when they felt drowsy during the past year and 37 percent said they had actually fallen asleep at the wheel.
A recent AAA survey of police officers in North America found that 89 percent believe that drowsy driving is as serious a problem as drunken driving, and nine out of 10 officers had pulled over a fatigued driver who they thought was drunk.
Research has shown that being awake for 24 hours is equivalent to having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 - the legal limit for a DUI conviction in Colorado.
"If half of Americans said they had driven while drunk in the past year, there would be a huge public outcry," said Darrel Drobnich, senior director of government affairs at the National Sleep Foundation. "But because everybody sleeps, they don't realize that sleep deprivation and driving can be a deadly combination."
Sleep sneaks up on drivers
From 1994 to 2004, 602 people died in Colorado in the 546 crashes where sleepiness was the main factor, according to data from the NHTSA's Fatal Accident Reporting System.
Weld County had the highest percentage, at 8.4 percent, of all traffic fatalities, followed by El Paso County at 5.9 percent and Mesa County at 5.5 percent.
The most dangerous time of day for fatal driving crashes involving fatigue is in the early morning hours, especially between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m and 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., and in the afternoon about 3 p.m., the data show. This coincides with the body's internal body clock, which often triggers sleepiness about 3 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Most drowsy driving crashes in Colorado occur on the weekend, with Saturday accounting for 20.7 percent and Sunday 18.3 percent, according to the data.
In 2004, two-thirds of the drivers involved in fatal drowsy driving accidents in Colorado were male.
Kissinger says that there are no definitive warning signs of fatigue.
"Most people feel that they can always tell when they're getting tired and will know when to pull off the road and rest," Kissinger said. "The reality is that it's just not true. All you have to do is nod off for a couple of seconds in the wrong situation and you could end up with a terrible catastrophe."
Signs of fatigue often include yawning, having wandering and disconnected thoughts, and brief moments of eye closure called micro- sleeps. Drobnich says that turning up the radio or rolling down the window will not help.
"The only two things that have been shown to work are caffeine - the equivalent of two cups - and a short nap," Drobnich said.
"Rumble strips" on road shoulders have shown to be effective at reducing crashes by up to 50 percent, the NHTSA says. A Colorado Department of Transportation study of Highway 119, between Boulder and Nederland, showed that three years after rumble strips were installed in 1996, head-on crashes there had been cut by more than a third.
Some states have cracked down on drowsy driving. In 2003, New Jersey became the first state to enact a law, called Maggie's Law, under which drivers can be charged with vehicular homicide while sleep deprived if they have been awake for more than 24 hours.
Michigan and Massachusetts have introduced legislation that would amend current laws to include fatigue as a factor of reckless driving.
New York has gone one step further, with the introduction of a bill that would enable authorities to charge a driver with a Class A misdemeanor for driving while impaired by fatigue.
In Colorado and other states, drivers can be charged with careless driving if they are not in control of the vehicle, whether because of fatigue or other factors.
The teenager in the crash that killed Scott Kornfield received one year of probation and 150 hours of community service after pleading guilty in Boulder County District Court to careless driving causing death.
Colorado has no plans to change the laws to incorporate fatigue driving, Harris said.
Gary Kornfield said he doesn't think that imposing stiffer punishment will deter other drivers.
"What happened to our son was an accident, pure and simple," he said. "There was nothing intentional or malicious - it was a tragic accident, yet there are things we can do about it."
Kornfield said that with more public awareness, similar to campaigns against drunken driving, people will be alerted to the seriousness of driving while fatigued.
"We don't ever think that we're going to be the ones who are going to fall asleep," he said. "We need to be more concerned and more aware of the tragedies that can occur from a seemingly innocent act of driving when we're a little bit tired."
Deadly drowsiness
100,000: Estimated number of crashes caused by driver fatigue each year in the U.S., according to the federal government.
71,000: Number of people injured each year in accidents caused by driver fatigue.
1,500: Number of people killed each year in accidents caused by driver fatigue.
hubbardb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5107
Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4444533,00.html
Colorado motorists asleep at the wheel
State ranks sixth in U.S. for fatalities from drowsy driving
By Carolyn Barry and Burt Hubbard, Rocky Mountain News
February 6, 2006
Colorado's roads are among the deadliest in the U.S. when it comes to drivers succumbing to a dangerous habit: drifting off to sleep behind the wheel.
The family of one victim and some highway officials say the problem calls for more education. They hope to awaken the public's awareness about drowsy driving.
Colorado ranks high in the percentage of people killed by motorists who fell asleep while driving.
In 2004, 54 people died in 49 fatigue-related accidents in Colorado, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That represents 8 percent of the 594 fatal crashes in Colorado in 2004 - more than double the national average of 3 percent.
Colorado, along with Texas and Maine, had the sixth-highest percentage of fatal drowsy driving accidents in the country. Wyoming led the nation with 13 percent.
The results can be instantaneous - and irreversible.
Cyclist Scott Kornfield, 28, was killed in the early morning hours on Memorial Day last year when he was struck by a Boulder teenager who fell asleep at the wheel on U.S. 36 near Broomfield while returning from a late-night party.
"You'd be hard-pressed to find anybody in America who has never dozed off for even a fraction of a second behind the wheel, and yet that's all it takes to have something disastrous happen," Kornfield's father, Gary, said recently. "I don't think it's something my wife and I really thought about until our son was killed."
Fatigue difficult to measure
The federal government has conservatively estimated that about 100,000 crashes a year are caused by driver fatigue, resulting in 71,000 people being injured and 1,500 fatalities. But safety officials said those figures are probably low because of the difficulty of determining fatigue as the cause of an accident, especially when alcohol or other factors are involved.
"The statistics undoubtedly underestimate the true nature of the problem," said Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. "Drowsy driving, definitely, is one of the largest and less appreciated problems in traffic safety."
Tim Harris, Gov. Bill Owens' highway safety representative, said that while the figures on drowsy driving deaths in Colorado are significant, state funding is focused on seat belt use and drunken driving.
Harris and other traffic officials aren't sure why Colorado ranked high in such crashes, although the state's rural character could be a factor.
National studies show that the problem is widespread.
Sixty percent of respondents involved in a 2005 National Sleep Foundation survey said they had driven when they felt drowsy during the past year and 37 percent said they had actually fallen asleep at the wheel.
A recent AAA survey of police officers in North America found that 89 percent believe that drowsy driving is as serious a problem as drunken driving, and nine out of 10 officers had pulled over a fatigued driver who they thought was drunk.
Research has shown that being awake for 24 hours is equivalent to having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 - the legal limit for a DUI conviction in Colorado.
"If half of Americans said they had driven while drunk in the past year, there would be a huge public outcry," said Darrel Drobnich, senior director of government affairs at the National Sleep Foundation. "But because everybody sleeps, they don't realize that sleep deprivation and driving can be a deadly combination."
Sleep sneaks up on drivers
From 1994 to 2004, 602 people died in Colorado in the 546 crashes where sleepiness was the main factor, according to data from the NHTSA's Fatal Accident Reporting System.
Weld County had the highest percentage, at 8.4 percent, of all traffic fatalities, followed by El Paso County at 5.9 percent and Mesa County at 5.5 percent.
The most dangerous time of day for fatal driving crashes involving fatigue is in the early morning hours, especially between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m and 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., and in the afternoon about 3 p.m., the data show. This coincides with the body's internal body clock, which often triggers sleepiness about 3 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Most drowsy driving crashes in Colorado occur on the weekend, with Saturday accounting for 20.7 percent and Sunday 18.3 percent, according to the data.
In 2004, two-thirds of the drivers involved in fatal drowsy driving accidents in Colorado were male.
Kissinger says that there are no definitive warning signs of fatigue.
"Most people feel that they can always tell when they're getting tired and will know when to pull off the road and rest," Kissinger said. "The reality is that it's just not true. All you have to do is nod off for a couple of seconds in the wrong situation and you could end up with a terrible catastrophe."
Signs of fatigue often include yawning, having wandering and disconnected thoughts, and brief moments of eye closure called micro- sleeps. Drobnich says that turning up the radio or rolling down the window will not help.
"The only two things that have been shown to work are caffeine - the equivalent of two cups - and a short nap," Drobnich said.
"Rumble strips" on road shoulders have shown to be effective at reducing crashes by up to 50 percent, the NHTSA says. A Colorado Department of Transportation study of Highway 119, between Boulder and Nederland, showed that three years after rumble strips were installed in 1996, head-on crashes there had been cut by more than a third.
Some states have cracked down on drowsy driving. In 2003, New Jersey became the first state to enact a law, called Maggie's Law, under which drivers can be charged with vehicular homicide while sleep deprived if they have been awake for more than 24 hours.
Michigan and Massachusetts have introduced legislation that would amend current laws to include fatigue as a factor of reckless driving.
New York has gone one step further, with the introduction of a bill that would enable authorities to charge a driver with a Class A misdemeanor for driving while impaired by fatigue.
In Colorado and other states, drivers can be charged with careless driving if they are not in control of the vehicle, whether because of fatigue or other factors.
The teenager in the crash that killed Scott Kornfield received one year of probation and 150 hours of community service after pleading guilty in Boulder County District Court to careless driving causing death.
Colorado has no plans to change the laws to incorporate fatigue driving, Harris said.
Gary Kornfield said he doesn't think that imposing stiffer punishment will deter other drivers.
"What happened to our son was an accident, pure and simple," he said. "There was nothing intentional or malicious - it was a tragic accident, yet there are things we can do about it."
Kornfield said that with more public awareness, similar to campaigns against drunken driving, people will be alerted to the seriousness of driving while fatigued.
"We don't ever think that we're going to be the ones who are going to fall asleep," he said. "We need to be more concerned and more aware of the tragedies that can occur from a seemingly innocent act of driving when we're a little bit tired."
Deadly drowsiness
100,000: Estimated number of crashes caused by driver fatigue each year in the U.S., according to the federal government.
71,000: Number of people injured each year in accidents caused by driver fatigue.
1,500: Number of people killed each year in accidents caused by driver fatigue.
hubbardb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5107
Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
