There seems to be no question at this point: Drowsy driving is a serious issue not just in California but throughout the United States. According to a study by the CDC, more than one in three adults in the country regularly get fewer than the recommend seven hours of sleep each day. Stats by the U.S. government have long shown that only about 1% to 2% of car accidents are caused by drowsy driving.
Relatively speaking, that isn’t a huge number of accidents – so why is there so much focus on it? If those stats are accurate then driving while drowsy isn’t nearly as dangerous driving while drunk or driving while distracted. The problem is that a newer study has been released by AAA and it paints a very different picture.
Read on to learn more about this new study and what it finds then contact Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas at 909-982-0707 if you’ve been involved in a car accident that resulted in injuries. We will start with a free legal consultation and may be able to help you get compensation for your damages.
The study looked at more than 3,500 drivers
The study was conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. It looked at the months between October of 2010 and December of 2013. More than 3,500 drivers across the United States were studied. Researchers looked at their driving actions via in-vehicle cameras and other technologies. They used the PERCOLOS measure, which looks at the percentage of eye closure, to determine how drowsy a person was. According to the researchers, this was the first study of its size to use PERCOLOS.
The results of the study
Throughout the four-year study, there were just over 700 crashes. The researchers determined that somewhere between 8.8 and 9.5% of them were at least partially due to drowsiness. As you can see, this is a significant difference between the numbers estimated by the United States. Why the difference?
The answers are fairly simple. First, police officers don’t have a measurable method of determining if a person involved in an accident is drowsy. Second, drivers are likely to say that they’re not drowsy, which leads to police reports and investigations that aren’t accurate. Finally, a person’s own idea of whether or not they’re drowsy is not the best method of determining if they’re drowsy.
A person’s drowsiness could be used as part of a personal injury case
If you were involved in an accident in which you were injured, and it can be shown that the other driver was drowsy, then that could be relevant to your injury claim. In the event that it can’t be proven that they were drowsy, there are likely other ways to prove negligence. In most cases, a person acting as a result of being drowsy makes mistakes, which can be proven. To find out what your options are, please contact Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas at 909-982-0707 for a free legal consultation.
