Is it risky to drive drowsy?

Plenty of attention has fallen on dangerous driving behaviors over the years. This especially applies to matters like intoxicated driving or texting while driving.

Drowsy driving is another issue that more people have paid attention to recently. Not only is it a major risk, but it is a potentially deadly one.

The dangers of complacency

CDC discusses drowsy driving and its impact on driver safety. Drowsy driving has an extra risk factor in the form of it being widely acceptable, especially when compared with other forms of dangerous driving. Everyone acknowledges that driving while intoxicated is a dangerous idea. However, many people still think that driving while drowsy is no big deal.

This increases the chances of a drowsy driving accident happening simply because more people are participating in the dangerous activity. It also gives drivers a false sense of security, as they believe that maybe it is not so dangerous every time they successfully make it to or from a destination when exhausted.

Falling asleep at the wheel

However, the biggest risk of drowsy driving comes in the form of microsleep. This happens when the driver falls asleep for brief bursts of time that usually lasts around 3 seconds. While this may not seem like long, it is enough time to drive the length of a football field when traveling at typical highway speeds.

Most of the deadliest drowsy driving crashes happen when a driver falls asleep at the wheel and drives through the meridian into oncoming traffic. All it takes is one single instant for things to go wrong and for drowsy driving to result in a death.