Drowsy Driving Can Be Dangerous, Stay Safe This Thanksgiving Holiday

Originally updated: August 30, 2018

Updated on: November 20, 2018

Driving drowsy can seriously impair your ability to drive safely.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drowsy driving is a major problem in the United States. Roughly one in every 25 drivers reports that they have fallen asleep while driving in the past 30 days alone.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) claims that drowsy driving was responsible for 90,000 crashes, 41,000 injuries, and 4,121 fatal accidents in 2015. These numbers, however large they may be, are still an underestimation of the damage drowsy driving accidents cause on the roads each year. This is because unlike drunk driving, there is no objective test (such as a blood or breath alcohol test) to determine if someone was driving drowsy at a crash scene.

What is drowsy driving?

Drowsy driving is driving while sleepy or fatigued. Operating a vehicle while drowsy comes with dangerous side effects, such as:

• Inability to focus on the road
• Slow reaction time
• Reduced ability to make good decisions
• Decreases your awareness
• Increase in moodiness and aggressive behavior

A person is usually driving drowsy because they have not slept enough; however, there are several other reasons for drowsy driving, including:

• Medications: Medications can do wonders to control certain medical conditions commonly found in the human body, but they also have a tendency to affect the brain’s neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals released by the brain via nerve fibers, and when they are disrupted, communication within the body (like when your brain tells your system that it is tired and needs sleep) becomes distorted and sometimes misinterpreted.
• Drinking alcohol: There are countless reasons why people should not drive with alcohol in their systems. One of these reasons lies in the fact that alcohol is a depressant. Drinks with alcohol in them assist with the body’s natural production of melatonin, which acts as a natural sedative. Additionally, alcohol produces a muscle relaxing effect, which also helps to promote rest.
• Untreated sleep disorders: The most common cause of sleepiness is sleep deprivation, and people who find themselves chronically sleep deprived are typically dealing with some sort of sleep disorder. If left untreated, these sleep disorders can prove deadly while driving, because your body is physically and mentally incapable of maintaining control of your motor functions when exhausted.
• Shift work: For years, scientists have theorized that working night shifts is a bad idea because the irregular work hours start a “fight” against the human body’s natural circadian rhythm. If this battle is eventually lost, the results – especially while operating machinery on the road – can be deadly due to exhaustion.

The Thanksgiving holiday and drowsy driving

Thanksgiving can be a very dangerous time for drivers to be out on the road, and this is, in large part, due to drowsy driving. Americans tend to overeat on Thanksgiving, which allows the body to release too much of the hormone serotonin. This excessive “leak” in the brain prompts drowsiness, which can lead to extremely risky driving situations.

Additionally, many families choose to travel early on Thanksgiving in an effort to avoid the hazardous El Paso traffic conditions and delays. While this may seem like a good idea, driving when there is a reduction in visibility or when you are too tired to effectively operate a motor vehicle puts both you and others on the road at risk of injury by car crash.

How to know you’re too tired to drive

Knowing the signs of when you may be operating a vehicle while tired or fatigued is important if you are to avoid it. Pull over if you are driving and you:

• Are yawning or blinking often
• Cannot distinctly remember the last few miles you have driven
• Missed your exit
• Find yourself drifting from your lane
• Accidentally ran over a rumble strip on the side of the road more than once

Drowsy driving is dangerous driving. It is that simple. If you have been injured in a car accident caused by a drowsy driver in the El Paso, TX or Las Cruces, NM areas, drowsy driving accident lawyer Rob Lovett will help you recover just compensation for your injuries. With offices in both El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, NM, Rob Lovett proudly serves the injured residents of both states in their time of need.

For more information on how we can help you get the compensation you deserve for accidents caused by drowsy driving, please call Lovett Law Firm, personal injury and accident lawyer in El Paso, NM and Las Cruces, NM today at 915-757-9999 (El Paso, Texas) or 575-523-5555 (Las Cruces, New Mexico) to request a free initial consultation with our experienced accident attorney.