Drowsy Drivers
Are less risky in city traffic than on country roads
There
are two kinds of drowsy drivers:
You
The other guy
Both
can kill you.
Maybe
I should offer a definition for 'drowsy' before launching any
further into this discussion. There are two kinds of fatigue:
physical and mental. When a person is experiencing mental fatigue
he is, as far as I'm concerned, both tired and drowsy. This
is far more than a state of being close to falling asleep.
It involves:
loss of alertness
decreased ability (and/or willingness) to scan and recognize
danger
increased reaction times
decreased motivation (willingness, again)
slower mental processes like decision making
I
suppose it has escaped none of you that these are exactly the same
symptoms evidenced by a person who is intoxicated or using certain
medications (read: drugs).
What
is particularly dangerous, it seems to me, is that a drowsy driver
is sometimes not even aware of his diminished capacities. Take,
for example, the driver who is suffering from 'road hypnosis' who
can be seen actually driving his vehicle (subconsciously) yet is
oblivious to hazards in the road ahead and who does not even
realize that his lack of hazard detection (or collision avoidance)
activity is itself a hazard.
It
turns out that drowsy drivers are more dangerous to you if they
are driving on country roads away from traffic than if they find
themselves having to contend with city traffic. This, because when
driving in city traffic they receive relatively frequent 'notice'
of their drowsiness - sometimes because they hear/feel their tires
running over lane dividers, sometimes because other drivers honk
their horns or flash their lights in an effort to get their
attention, sometimes because they are forced to make more
decisions (shifting, for example).
If
it turns out that YOU are the drowsy driver, the odds of falling
asleep are relatively small. Operating a motorcycle involves so
much activity and attention that it is very rare indeed that a
rider will fall asleep. On the other hand, because it does take so
much attention and alertness to handle a motorcycle, drowsiness
should be a major concern to all of us.
Similarly,
statistics gathered by accident investigators suggest that very
few accidents happen because a car/truck driver actually falls
asleep as compared to those that happen because a drowsy driver
fails to detect a hazard or fails to take proper collision
avoidance action.
Since
a drowsy driver is often unaware of how diminished his capacities
are, if you are tired you are well advised to stop driving as soon
as possible. If you are away from city traffic, be extraordinarily
careful until you can find a place to stop for some rest or for
the night because you will receive far less 'notice' or reminders
of your drowsiness than if you are driving in normal city traffic.
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