Accident Causes: Driver Fatigue
March 14th, 2010 | Published in Car Accidents, Personal Injury, Truck Accidents
Mostly everyone is aware of the dangers of driving while intoxicated. Most drivers will not get behind the wheel of a vehicle with a bottle of wine in hand or case of beer. However, there is one thing that can happen to any driver and that is driver fatigue.
Driver fatigue can happen after experiencing a tough long day at work, as a result of pulling an all-nighter after studying for an exam or traveling long-distance between states. Regardless of what the situation is, everyone experiences driver fatigue at one point.
Even if you pride yourself in getting a full eight hours of sleep every single night you can get tired while driving. Medication can cause driver fatigue, certain illnesses can cause you to become tired or just plain old boredom can cause your eyelids to get heavy.
Driver fatigue can cause a driver to swerve in and out of lanes. It can even cause one to greatly reduce speed, for example, driving 20 miles an hour on a highway when the speed limit is 65. This can cause accident injuries and even death.
Here are a few important tips to help prevent driver fatigue:
Listen to peppy music to help keep you awake.
Drink cold bottled water or coffee.
Open the window to get fresh air.
When all else fails, the best thing to do is to stop driving and safely get off at the next rest stop and take a nap until you feel revived.
If you need to drive to your destination and you feel extremely tired, don’t get behind the wheel at all. Many drivers fail to realize that getting behind the wheel of a vehicle while tired is equivalent to being intoxicated. You’re better off having someone else who is alert to drive or calling a taxi.
Blog Post Provided By-Your Atlanta Car Accident Attorney, Robert N. Susko
