TIRED DRIVING

We’ve all questioned whether or not we should drive home after a long night, but what about a big day? About one in five car crashes where someone is killed or injured are caused by tired driving.

DID YOU KNOW THAT WHEN YOU DRIVE ON LESS THAN 5 HOURS OF SLEEP, YOU ARE 4 TIMES MORE LIKELY TO CRASH?

ON AVERAGE, 30 PEOPLE DIE EACH YEAR AND 200 PEOPLE SUFFER SERIOUS INJURIES DUE TO FATIGUE RELATED CRASHES

LONG HOURS AT WORK, A NIGHT OUT, SHIFT WORK, STUDYING LATE, SLEEP APNOEA OR PHYSICALLY DEMANDING ROLES ARE COMMON CAUSES OF FATIGUE

HOW WILL DRIVING TIRED AFFECT ME?

Tired driving impairs alertness and reaction times. It causes lapses in attention and poor decision-making, all of which can lead to increased risk of crashing.

Driving tired may cause you to:

Have trouble remembering the last few kilometres driven, daydream, miss exits or traffic signs.
Drift from your lane, tailgate, hit a shoulder rumble strip or have difficulty maintaining a consistent, correct speed.
Linger a little too long at traffic lights – or miss the lights changing altogether.
Have a slower reaction time when braking or stopping at intersections.

Three young people laying on bed outside

HOW DO I KNOW IF I’M TOO TIRED TO DRIVE?

It’s up to you to make the call on whether it’s time to pull over for a break or if you’re too tired to drive. Signs to watch out for include:

YAWNING

SORE OR HEAVY EYES

SLOWER REACTION TIMES

FINDING YOU’RE DAYDREAMING

NOT CONCENTRATING

SPEED CREEPING UP OR DOWN

IMPATIENCE

STIFFNESS AND CRAMPS

LOSS OF MOTIVATION

NODDING OFF, EVEN FOR A SECOND

HOW TO AVOID TIRED DRIVING?

Although you might be tempted to turn the music up and power through a long drive, there is no substitute for sleep. A 15-minute power nap and a coffee can be a gamechanger but it’s a bandaid to some good shut-eye. Alert driving is all in the planning, we’d suggest:

ENSURE YOU’RE GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP - 8 HOURS - BEFORE DRIVING

AVOID DRIVING AT TIMES WHEN YOU WOULD NORMALLY BE SLEEPING

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY AND TAKE TIREDNESS SERIOUSLY. IF YOU FEEL TOO TIRED TO DRIVE, YOU ARE

TAKE A REST BREAK EVERY TWO HOURS ON LONG DRIVES OR IF POSSIBLE, SWAP DRIVERS REGULARLY

THE BOTTOM LINE

The only way to fight sleep is by sleeping.

If you take anything away let it be this: if you feel too tired to drive, you are. Stop and take a nap, we want you to get home sweet home.