"Driver fatigue doesn’t get as much attention as drunken driving, but it can be just as deadly." Dr. Alan Pack, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, PA.

•  "We live in a twenty-four-hour society where a lot of people are tired all the time," says Joyce Walsleben, Ph.D., Dir. of Sleep Disorders Center at New York University, Bellevue Medical Center. She cites studies showing that, over the past century, Americans have shortened their sleep time by as much as 20%. Though individual needs vary greatly, on average, people require seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Often, they get much less.

•  "We need massive education," "people must regard drowsiness as a red alert. To keep driving is like drinking from a bottle with a skull and crossbones."

"Drowsy driving is negligence, the same as drunk driving"
"Drowsiness is a red alert," "If you feel sleepy, you should do something about it--ideally, get of the road and get some sleep."
Dr. William C. Dement, Dir. Stanford University Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Center, Palo Alto, CA

•  "When you’re sleepy, your brain starts to shut down," "But even before you actually nod off, performance slips." Trying harder to stay awake may not help. Your thinking slows, you miss signals and risk-taking behavior increases. At 60 mph, if you close your eyes for only one second, you’ve traveled 88 feet. Even worse, sleepy drivers judgment is impaired, says Dr. Mark Rosekind, a fatigue specialist at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA.

•  "Even if you don’t fall asleep, when you drive drowsy you drive impaired," "Your reaction times is slowed, your perception is distorted and you don’t stay in the lane as easily", says Dr. David F. Dinges, University.of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
  

•  "Sleep deprivation is one of the major under-recognized killers in our society. In the contest between the will to stay awake and the need to sleep, sleep will always win. Too often, the driver ends up wrapped around a telephone pole."

"Sleep deprivation increases the effect of alcohol"
Daniel A. Katz., M.D. Department of Neurology, Menniger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas

•  "Driving drowsy "is just as bad as having five drinks and getting in the car", says spokesman Mark Hammer, New York’s Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research, Albany, NY

•  "Fatigue can impact all aspects of our lives, from our personal relationships to our ability to concentrate and perform daily tasks," says Dr. Allan Pack, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, PA

•  "Crashes involving fatigue and falling asleep at the wheel challenging the most experienced of traffic investigators," said Colonel Carl A. Williams, Superintendent of New Jersey State Police, NJ. "To better track fatigue driving-related accidents, the State Police Traffic Bureau has combined innovative investigative techniques, crash scene observations and unique questioning to aid in determining whether accidents result from fatigued driving."
  

•  Thomas Roth, Chief of the Sleep Disorders and Research Center, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, said tests have shown that the impact of sleeplessness is cumulative. "Two things happen to someone who only sleeps five hours," Roth said. "Overall reaction times is slowed, and there is a decaying performance over time." In other words, he said, "five hours of sleep may not be so bad one night, but five hours of sleep over five nights is profoundly bad."

[Article: Asleep At the Wheel, 1/31/95, The Washington Post, by Sandy Rovner]

•  Dr. Larry J. Findley, who conducted sleep research at the University of Virginia, said about 8 % of all Americans have excessive drowsiness, usually due to sleep deprivation.

[Article: Sleepy Drivers May Be As Fatal AS Drinkers, 12/8/94, The Associated Press, Washington, D.C.

•  "Drowsiness induces tunnel vision (loss of peripheral vision), affects attention span and increases the likelihood that drivers will attempt risky maneuvers, such as passing other vehicles without fully surveying the situation." The report concludes, "Fatigue has a detrimental effect on overall vehicle control."

[Report by: The New York State Thruway Authority, NY]

•  "People with insufficient sleep suffer impairments in performance, attention and reaction time, which leads to errors, including automobile crashes," said Claude Lenfant, M.D., director of the National Heart, Lund and Blood Institute at NIH. "We must make the American public more aware of the importance of adequate sleep to good health and functioning, as well as the risks of insufficient sleep."

•  "Fatigue is certainly a hidden and underestimated cause of accidents," said Dr. Martin C. Moore-Ede, a Harvard Medical School professor and director of Boston’s Institute for Circadian Physiology.

Article: Sleeping Killer on the Road; 2/16/1992; Final Edition, The Chicago Tribune by Mark Shuman

•  "An estimated 22,000 American died in alcohol-related crashes in 1990. Dr. Saul Rothenberg, of Chicago’s Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center says alcohol, even within legal limits, should be avoided by drivers, especially sleepy one. Fatigue is a factor in many accidents blamed on alcohol." 

Article: Sleeping Killer on the Road; 2/16/1992; Final Edition, The Chicago Tribune, by Mark Shuman

•  U.S. Department of Transportation, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and The National Institute of Health gave its report on June 3, 1999:

• Combat Problem of Fatigue, Sleepiness Among Fast-Growing Populations 
  Of Shift Workers and Teenagers

“People with insufficient sleep suffer impairments in performance, attention and reaction time, which leads to errors, including automobile crashes,” said Claude Lenfant, M.D., Director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at NIH. “We must make the American public more aware of the importance of adequate sleep to good health and functioning, as well as the risks of insufficient sleep. 

•  A study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety was done on February 8, 1993: Can Drivers Avoid Falling Asleep at the Wheel? Relationship Between Awareness of Sleepiness and Ability to Predict Sleep Onset

•  Researchers argue that the issue is not that people do not know they are dangerously close to falling asleep, BUT that they continue to drive despite awareness of sleepiness (Lisper, et al., 1986). Thus, awareness of sleepiness, awareness of the consequences of sleepiness, and motivation are all factors that can contribute to the safety of the sleepy driver.

•   Previous studies suggest that it is virtually impossible to fall asleep without any "warning" whatsoever (Lisper et al., 1986; Torsvall et al., 1989). That is, certain physiological cues invariable precede sleep, including eye straining and closure, excessive yawning, hallucinogenic and wandering thoughts, head nodding, and struggling to fight sleep (Lisper et al., 1986; Nelson 1989).

•  "While any driver can be at risk for drowsy driving, adults between the ages of 18 and 26 are in one of the highest risk groups because they tend to stay up late, sleep too little and drive at night." According to James B. Maas, Ph.D. professor at Cornell University and author of the book Power Sleep.

•  “Being very drowsy is just as dangerous as drinking and driving. It impairs performance,” said Dr. Allan Pack, Sleep Disorder expert with the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center.

•  “Sleeplessness and its effects on performance is very much a part of the American landscape.” said Roth, and this is showing up as thousands of automobile accidents and deaths. “The dangerous driver is the one who is asleep, but won’t admit it.”

Article: Asleep At the Wheel, 1/31/95, The Washington Post, by Sandy Rovner.

•  Experts point out that nobody is immune to falling asleep at the wheel. “We live in a twenty-four hour society where a lot of people are tired all the time,” says Joyce Walsleben, Ph.D., Director of Sleep Disorders Center at New York University / Bellevue Medical Center, NYC. She cites studies showing that, over the past century, Americans have shortened their sleep time by as much as 20 percent.

Though individual needs vary greatly, on an average, people require seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Often, they get much less. And though many believe it’s okay to skimp on sleep the biological fact is that it’s as necessary as food and water.

• say, Walsleben, “when you’re sleepy, your reflexes slow down,” it takes longer for your brain to process information and for you to react to that information. You tend to blink more often, and this can be extremely hazardous when you’re driving.
  Article: Asleep At the Wheel, Ladies Home Journal, 12/94

•  A most recent study sponsored by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety was released on December 20, 1999: Sleep Deprivation May Cause 15 Percent of Road Accidents, University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, conducted by Dr. Jane Stutts, Dr. Jean Wilkins, and Dr. Bradley Vaughn, Director of UNC’s Sleep Disorders Center.

• “The vast majority of people in our study who crashed as a result of driving while drowsy either got too little sleep on a routine basis and built up what sleep researchers describe as ‘sleep debt,’ or they got far too little sleep before trying to drive,” says Dr. Stutts. “In many cases, the people involved in these crashes were just the average 'driver next door' who happened to be putting in extra hours at work, adjusting to a new baby in the household, staying out late for a party, or trying to make it back home after an out-of-town trip."
• Although the study shows that certain populations are at greater risk for involvement in drowsy driving crash, Dr. Stutts cautioned that the results also who that “everyone who doesn’t get enough sleep on a regular basis is at risk.”
• “We hope the study being released will be a wake-up call to all those folks who have not been getting enough sleep.”
• “People need to think about sleep even when they don’t feel tired,” Willis says. “Driving with your eyes closed can kill you.”
  David K. Willis, President of the AAA Foundation of Traffic Safety