One in eight drivers has fallen asleep at the wheel in the past 12 months, claims a study.
ON average, every day six people are killed and 70 are seriously injured on UK roads.
There are various causes for these accidents including speeding, drivers getting distracted and drink-driving. They can also involve a driver nodding off at the wheel.
You travel 200 metres in six seconds if you’re driving on a motorway at 70 mph, if you nod off that’s enough time to veer across three lanes of traffic, down an embankment and onto another road or train track.
One in eight drivers has nodded off at the wheel in the past year, According to a new study by road safety charity Brake and Cambridge Weight Plan. These so-called microsleeps occur when someone nods off from between two and 30 seconds, often without realising .
The survey, which questioned 1,000 drivers, found that one in four admitted to starting a journey when they already felt drowsy, with 86 per cent admitting they didn’t follow advice on dealing with tiredness.
While 13 per cent of those surveyed reported suffering from a health condition such as obstructive sleep apnoea which in some cases can cause the sufferer to fall asleep without warning, more than a quarter (29 per cent), also put their own lives and those of others at risk by continuing their journey after noticing the first signs of drowsiness.
Brake is now calling on the Government to renew efforts to raise awareness of driver tiredness as a major cause of death and serious injury, and improve motorway facilities so that responsible drivers are able to stop when they need to.