Losing an hour of sleep and driving in darker morning conditions can be a dangerous and potentially fatal combination.
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00:00 When you spring ahead this weekend, you should know that daylight saving time could mean increased driving danger.
00:06 Here with more is Robert Sinclair, AAA's Northeastern Senior Manager of Public Affairs.
00:12 And as always, Mr. Sinclair, it is always a pleasure to have you here on AccuWeather Early.
00:18 Now, moving our clocks ahead one hour can possibly impact driving as we head toward this weekend.
00:27 And in the Monday morning commute, that's always dangerous, isn't it?
00:30 It is. You have to consider the fact that the sun will be coming up an hour later and we'll have an hour less sleep.
00:38 So for many, their morning commute will now be in darkness and it's creating greater danger because it's harder to see.
00:45 And, you know, our eyesight starts to degrade at age 35. And there are a lot of us that are older than that.
00:50 So this is a rapid change from Friday to from today until Monday. It usually takes about a week to adjust.
00:57 But we don't have that week. And so we're probably more tired than usual driving in darkness.
01:02 And so it creates a formula for a lot of problems.
01:06 Yeah. Losing an hour of sleep also can lead to drowsy driving.
01:09 Is AAA's finding, is AAA finding that a growing, that that is a growing danger on highways?
01:17 It absolutely is. And just about everybody in the safety community agrees that the the estimates that we see,
01:24 the numbers for drowsy driving are probably under estimates because people won't admit to it in the aftermath of a crash.
01:32 And unfortunately, a lot of people are injured or fatally injured,
01:36 and they're not able to talk about whether or not they were drowsy driving.
01:40 So we undertook a very in-depth analysis of the data and we found out that probably 18 percent of the crashes,
01:49 the fatal crashes from 2017 to 2021 were the result of drowsy driving.
01:55 That's nearly 30,000 fatalities in 2021 alone.
02:00 We estimate that six thousand seven hundred twenty five people died in crashes.
02:04 And NHTSA says that there were only six hundred eighty four.
02:08 So we're seeing a ten times greater number of fatal drowsy driving crashes over that time period due to our in-depth analysis.
02:18 And there are certain factors that prevail.
02:21 Drinking is a problem that can lead to to drowsy driving.
02:26 An overwhelming number of drowsy drivers are men.
02:30 Shift workers tend to be prevalent to those problems.
02:34 And the greatest number of crashes happen between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.
02:39 Now, road departure crashes are the most prevalent type of drowsy driving crash.
02:44 About 50 percent of those crashes resulted in drowsy were the result of the cause of drowsy driving.
02:52 And the crash where a vehicle crosses the median strip and goes into the oncoming traffic and has a head on crash.
03:01 We estimate that forty five percent of those crashes were the result of drowsy driving.
03:06 And these numbers are significantly higher than the numbers previously reported as a result of our in-depth analysis by the Triple A Foundation for Traffic Safety.
03:16 Those are just staggering numbers.
03:18 All right. Well, what can we do?
03:20 What can we do this weekend to prepare and be safe on the roads?
03:24 Well, you have to realize that if you get less than five hours sleep, most experts say it's akin to being drunk,
03:29 that we need to get seven hours sleep and that needs to happen this weekend.
03:34 This weekend, we need to be getting the requisite number hours of sleep.
03:39 We have to travel at times that we're accustomed to being awake.
03:43 Don't have a heavy meal before hitting the road.
03:45 Certainly avoiding alcohol and drugs.
03:49 Very important on long trips.
03:51 You should take a break every couple hours.
03:54 That's about 100 miles and travel with a passenger, an alert passenger who can share the driving.
04:02 A lot of times we're traveling with passengers and they're asleep as well.
04:05 And if you're feeling tired, take a nap.
04:09 Twenty to thirty minutes works wonders.
04:12 And just before taking that nap, if you consume a caffeine beverage, it takes about twenty to thirty minutes for that caffeine to kick in.
04:19 You'll be able to wake up refreshed and you'll have the caffeine boost and you'll have rest and it'll go a long way for you to staying awake while you're on the road.
04:27 And that's something that's very, very important.
04:30 Robert Sinclair, senior manager of public affairs at Triple A.
04:33 Robert, we always thank you.
04:35 You have yourself a safe and happy weekend, sir.
04:38 Thank you. And you do the same, Bernie.