A new study shows that contrary to popular belief, most drowsy-driving-related roadway deaths occur in the morning.
That guy who continues to drift into your lane during your morning commute to work may not be trying to drink coffee, shave and eat all at the same time — he may be nodding off behind the wheel.
Contrary to popular belief, it is the early morning that is when roadway fatalities spike due to drowsy driving, according to new study by SleepJunkie, a website aimed at improving sleeping habits.
The most dangerous time is 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. with the book-end time slots – 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. — posting the second- and third-most fatal times, according to the report using National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.
The revelation dispels the myth that the sleepy-driver threat peaks in the nighttime hours, said SleepJunkie project manager Carly Johnson.
Drowsiness causes an average 328,000 crashes per year, with 109,000 involving 6,400 fatalities across the USA, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. But the accidents are largely preventable and often forgotten as people associate only drunken driving with driving while impaired, Johnson said.
(Death toll on U.S. roads continues to rise. For more, Click Here.)
“If you’re tired, you need to pull over and find a place to sleep,” she said. “Protect yourself and the people you are with.”
The morning was the worst time and interstate highways were the worst place for these deaths, the study revealed. Johnson notes that those highways carry higher volumes of traffic so it would make sense they would also have the greatest rate of fatalities.
Sleep-related deaths account for 5% of all interstate fatalities. However, the study notes the deadliest roadway in the nation for sleep-related accidents is I-37 in southern Texas, where 18% of the highway’s fatal crashes are tied to drowsy driving, a surprising statistic.
(Click Here for details about the rise in pedestrian deaths in the U.S. last year.)
“It’s a very short interstate, yet it had almost double the sleep-related fatality rate compared to the next one on the list,” I-76, which runs more than 425 miles from Ohio to New Jersey, Johnson said.
Overall, Wyoming with its long stretches of open roads topped the U.S. in highest percentage of fatal sleep-related accidents at 8.6%. It was followed by Vermont with 6.8%, and then Colorado with 6%.
Three of the top five most dangerous counties were in California, with San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles counties taking first, third and fourth place. Bexar County, Texas, and Maricopa County, Arizona, were second and fifth respectively.
(U.S. highway fatalities surge 8% in 2015. Click Here for the story.)
With when and where resolved, what – in terms of vehicle – was most likely to be involved in a drowsy-driving accident: utility vehicles. They were tops with pickup trucks and vans next on the list, the study found. Dawn light and foggy skies contributed the most to fatal sleep-related accidents.