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Sleep Deprived or Drunk -- No Difference!

© Stephen Weistling

Have you ever had the occasion to be driving in the late evening or early morning hours and noticed the preponderance of trucks on the highway? It’s a common occurrence throughout the United States and Canada as professional truckers, in order to maximize the usage of their vehicles and make delivery deadlines, resort to 24-hour operations.

Have you also wondered how many of these drivers are just about out of luck, and about to run their huge monoliths directly into your path? If you haven’t, maybe you should.

Drowsiness impairs drivers’ abilities to make sound, split-second, and often, life-saving decisions. According to the U.S. National Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) driver fatigue ranks higher than driver misbehavior, inattention, or poor judgment as the most common cause of human error behind the wheel. They also report that approximately 100,000 police-reported crashes each year involve drowsiness or fatigue as the main cause of these accidents.

Two months ago in the rural area where I live, police officer “Jim Nash” attempted to assist another patrol unit in pursuit of a speeding driver. The time was 11.30 p.m.

The officer raced to his next intersection and attempted to make a u-turn to catch up with the speeder and other unit traveling in the opposite direction. Jim then made his fatal mistake. Focused primarily on the pursuit, Jim inadvertently turned into the path of an approaching big-rig.

No one can say if the big-rig driver could have avoided Jim, but he didn’t.

By 9:00 a.m., they were still trying to cut Jim’s body out of what appeared to be simply a “crushed beer can” of a patrol car. I watched them haul the twisted mass of steel onto a flatbed truck later that day and thought if only there had been one or two more seconds of time – maybe either one – or both could have reacted sooner, and Jim’s life could have been saved.

Most people would never even think about driving drunk. But all too often we slip behind the wheel when we are just as dangerous to ourselves and to others.

Researchers have found that driving while sleep-impaired is just as hazardous as driving while intoxicated. They divided their subjects up into three groups and tested them all on a road course with obstacles to establish a baseline. Then they had one group go one night without any sleep, another group went seven nights with only 2 hours sleep, and the third group consumed alcohol. Then they were tested again.

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