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How Dangerous is Driving While You are Tired? An AAA Foundation for Traffic Study Finds Out.

Not surprisingly, getting a good night's sleep or staying alert while driving is very important. However, you may not realize how serious a problem drowsy driving actually is.

According to a AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study, driving while tired leads to nearly three times as many auto accidents as when a driver is fully alert and rested. The study also reports that tired drivers are as great a risk to the safety of other motorists as speeders and are actually more dangerous than aggressive, inattentive, or distracted (from texting or cellular telephone calls, etc.) drivers.

The study is based upon data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which used video recorders and sensors. According to the NHTSA's researchers, drowsiness contributed to 20% of all car crashes and near auto wrecks during the nearly year long study. Considering that each year there are around 100,000 car wrecks each year based upon government police reports and estimates. That means there are around 20,000 drowsy driving related car accidents each year.

Most tired driving accidents occur between midnight and 6 a.m.when drivers are exhausted and sleep deprived. The body's natural sleep cycles tend to make people more tired during these times.

Surprisingly, two of the most common methods people advocate for fighting tired driving is rolling down a window for fresh air or blasting loud music. However, the study found that neither one of these methods actually had an effect when people are very sleepy. One proven method, caffeine, works but takes at least one half hour to take effect.

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