Q: My job involves shift work and long hours. Sometimes I’m driving home after being awake for 24 hours. If I fell asleep at the wheel would I be considered impaired? Could I get a DUI?
A: In response your first question, yes, you are impaired. But no, you won’t get a DUI for drowsy driving. Washington’s Driving Under the Influence law is written specifically to address drivers under the influence of “intoxicating liquor, marijuana or any drug”. The law has a narrow scope because it addresses a specific issue. That doesn’t mean that a drowsy driver gets a free pass; just that the DUI law is not the right law to counter this problem.
Although we usually think of alcohol or drugs in connection with impaired driving, there are other things that impair our ability to drive. The traffic safety community often refers to the four D’s of driving; drunk, drugged, distracted and drowsy. Each type of impairment comes with its own problems and its own solutions. In previous columns we’ve considered the first three D’s; today we’ll look at drowsy driving. Maybe you’ve heard the quote, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” That’s just a rip-off of Benjamin Franklin, who over 200 years ago said, “There will be sleeping enough in the grave,” demonstrating that since the founding of our country we’ve been undervaluing sleep.
Until a few days ago, I thought the primary danger of drowsy driving was falling asleep. Then I attended a seminar by a nationally renowned sleep expert. This expert has done extensive studies regarding the effects of sleep deprivation, and the results of these studies show that a lack of sleep impacts many areas of our lives. I’ll just focus on how sleep (or not enough of it) affects driving.
Here’s the basic message: When you’re sleep deprived all your performance is degraded. How degraded, you asked? Decision making skills are 50% worse than a well-rested person. Memory is 20% worse. Reaction times are 50% worse. Think about that; when we lack sleep, about half of our decisions are bad, or at least less than optimum. People who missed out on two hours of sleep performed at levels similar to a person with a .08 alcohol level. Sleep deprived drivers are between two times (drivers with 6 hours sleep) and twenty times (drivers on the road between two and six AM) more likely than a well-rested driver to get in a crash.
The other part of the problem is that when we’re drowsy, we misjudge how much our lack of sleep affects our performance ability. Because we are bad judges of our own condition, we’re likely to drive when we really should take a nap. Instead, we probably just roll down the window and turn up the stereo. And according to studies, that actually works, but only for about ten minutes. The only real solution to drowsy driving is sleep.
How pervasive is drowsy driving? When asked about driving in the previous 30 days, four percent of drivers admitted to falling asleep. Last year about 328,000 crashes were attributed to drowsy drivers. Of those, 109,000 resulted in injuries and 1550 resulted in death. But those numbers are misleading because we don’t have a test for drowsiness like we do for alcohol or drugs. Instead, crash investigators rely on observations or the statements of drivers. As you might expect, people aren’t always willing to admit to something that puts them at fault, so drowsy driving crashes get under-reported.
Getting back to the law, only two states, New Jersey and Arkansas, have laws that specifically address drowsy driving. In Washington, a drowsy driver who “endangers or is likely to endanger” someone else would most likely be charged with negligent driving. Considering the potential consequences of drowsy driving, here’s the best advice: take a nap.