Blog

Not drinking enough water may make drivers as error-prone as drinking alcohol, UK researchers say.

Dehydrated Driving: A New Risk Factor for Car Accidents?According to a study recently published in the Journal of Physiology and Behavior, dehydration is a serious danger for drivers.

In the course of the study, researchers at Loughborough University in England tested 12 male volunteers’ driving abilities on a simulator. On the day of the first round of testing, the volunteers were told to drink 200 ml of water every hour to ensure they were fully hydrated. When preparing for the second round, volunteers drank just 25 ml of water every hour.

The difference in hydration definitely showed in the test results. In the course of a two-hour simulated highway drive, the dehydrated drivers made a total of 101 errors while the hydrated drivers made just 47. In other words, drivers made over twice as many errors while dehydrated.

According to researchers, this represented the same increase in errors that would be expected when driving with a BAC over England’s legal limit of 0.8 or when driving sleep-deprived.

Why Dehydration Leads to Bad Driving

This makes sense when you consider that dehydration has serious physiological consequences. The body is nearly 65 percent water, and as hydration levels drop all kinds of processes that require water begin to become impaired, including blood circulation, metabolism, body temperature regulation, and detoxification. This can result in all kinds of symptoms, but the most worrisome from a traffic safety perspective is reduced brain activity, leading to impaired cognition, reduced alertness, and short term memory problems.

According to researchers, the level of dehydration induced in the study was actually relatively minor. It is similar to what a busy individual might experience at the end of a long day, or what an individual trying to avoid pit stops might endure on a cross-country trip.

Add Dehydration to Your List of “Ds” to Avoid When Driving

Based on this new information, it seems clear that safe drivers now have a list of 4 “Ds” to avoid:

  • Drunk driving
  • Drowsy driving
  • Distracted driving
  • Dehydrated driving

4 “Ds” and Car Accident Claims

Dehydration and drowsy may be too difficult to prove to use as proof of liability for a car accident, unless the at-fault driver admits one of these conditions. Drunk driving and distracted driving provide richer fodder. If the person who caused your car accident appears drunk, the police will probably give them a breathalyzer test that can be used as evidence in your car accident injury claim. And if they were using their phone, eating, or otherwise distracted, you may be able to find eyewitnesses to testify to this fact.

In any case, always be sure to call an experienced car accident attorney such as Fernando D. Vargas for advice right away if you have been injured in a car accident.