The Dangers of Drowsy Driving
Driving while intoxicated is broadly accepted worldwide as a dangerous and illegal activity as alcohol significantly impairs a person’s ability to drive safely. Studies now show that similar impairment takes place in people who drive with obstructive sleep apnea and other sleep disorders. Although 18 million Americans, many of them drivers, suffer from this treatable condition, the vast majority remain undiagnosed.
Driving with obstructive sleep apnea:
• According to the Divided Attention Driving Task, a research test designed to mimic driving performance, individuals with sleep apnea perform, on average, as poorly as individuals whose levels of blood alcohol concentration exceed the legal limit.
• A study published in the May issue of the journal Sleep determined that more than 800,000 drivers were involved in OSA-related car accidents in 2000, costing $15.9 billion in damage and claiming 1,400 lives. The study estimates that if all drivers suffering from obstructive sleep apnea were treated, $11.1 billion in damages could be saved, along with 980 lives, each year.
• Patients with OSA have a 3-7 times higher risk of having a car crash.
• A study published in the August 15, 2004 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found that of 406 commercial drivers studied, 133 of them (33 percent) had either mild to moderate or severe obstructive sleep apnea. Sleepiness has been shown to account in 31-41 percent of major crashes of commercial vehicles. In 2001, large trucks were involved in 429,000 crashes, injuring 130,000 people. And 5,000 of those 429,000 crashes were fatal, responsible for 12 percent of all traffic deaths. Commercial crashes cost, on average, $75,637 per crash and $3.54 million per fatal crash.
Drowsy driving statistics:
• The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates that at least 200,000 traffic accidents occur each year because of driver fatigue.
• According to a report by the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, drowsy drivers cause more fatalities per accident than drunken drivers.
• The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that approximately 100,000 police-reported crashes annually (about 1.5 percent of all crashes) involve drowsiness or fatigue as a principal causal factor.
• According to National Sleep Foundation’s 2002 Sleep in America survey, about one-half of America’s adult drivers—or approximately 100 million people—are on the roads feeling sleepy while they are driving. Nearly two in 10 drivers surveyed say they have fallen asleep at the wheel in the past year.
• A study by the National Transportation Safety Board found that one-third of all truck accidents resulting in the death of the driver probably were caused by sleep deprivation.
• Other national studies have estimated that at least 20 percent of all drivers have fallen asleep while driving.
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