Crashes Could Be Prevented By Drowsy Driving Crackdown

Crashes Could Be Prevented By Drowsy Driving Crackdown

Drowsy driving remains a top potential cause of tragic motor vehicle accidents. As Automobile Mag reports, drowsy driving cases accounted for at least 2.2 to 2.6 percent of all deadly motor vehicle accidents on U.S. roadways. While this may seem a small percentage at first, it is important to realize that more than 72,000 motor vehicle accidents happen annually involving drowsy drivers.

If you or someone you love is one of the thousands involved in a crash with someone who is too fatigued to be safe behind the wheel, you deserve to be compensated for losses the collision caused. A Charleston car accident lawyer at Howell Law can provide representation to clients throughout South Carolina whose lives and health suffered due to an overtired motorist.

NHTSA To Crack Down on Drowsy Driving

In an effort to prevent deadly drowsy driving collisions, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is going to begin doing more. An administrator for the NHTSA indicated that drowsy driving needs to be a top focus for the agency this year because driving while fatigued is so common and is something that could happen to anyone. The administrator stated: “while not everybody drinks, or texts, or speeds, lack of sleep is a problem we all face.”

The NHTSA has not provided a great deal of specific information about the new plan for targeting drowsy driving. However, some of the things that the agency intends to do include:

  • Launching campaigns to bring awareness to the general public of the risks associated with driving while fatigued.
  • Gathering more data on how prevalent drowsy driving is.
  • Gathering more data on the causes of driving while drowsy
  • Evaluating different technical and legal solutions to determine what approaches to driving drowsy may have the most substantial impact.

Passing laws prohibiting drowsy driving could be difficult because it would be hard to assess how long someone spent in the car without a rest and whether a person was too tired to be behind the wheel. However, technological solutions may be a potential answer.

Rumble strips are already on many roads in order to try to wake up drowsy drivers who veer out of their lane. Newer and more high-tech solutions could include driver aids both inside of the vehicle and outside of it. One possible solution, for example, could include a computer algorithm that is able to detect when a driver has become sleepy enough that the motorist could be dangerous.

With around four percent of all drivers admitting to falling asleep at the wheel when responding to a 2013 survey conducted by the surveys for Disease Control and Prevention, it is clear that steps should be taken to try to reduce this dangerous behavior.

If drivers choose to get behind the wheel when they are too tired to be safe, victims can pursue legal action. A Charleston drowsy driving accident attorney at Howell Law can provide the legal help you need to get compensation for losses caused by a drowsy driving crash.