You are getting....sleepy
By: Jack Nerad for Driving Today
Date: 2004-07-20
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Are your eyes getting a little heavy? Drowsiness accounts for more than 1,500 auto-related deaths per year in the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. To deal with this deadly problem, Ford Motor Company has announced findings from a comprehensive five-month study, resulting in new technology designed to keep drowsy drivers awake.
The study is the most complete controlled laboratory research ever conducted on the difficult problem of drowsiness behind the wheel. Subjects were required to stay up all night and were not allowed to drink caffeine after 6 pm the night before the study took place. The sleep-deprived drivers were then sent on a three-hour drive--not behind the wheel of a car--but behind the wheel of Ford's state-of-the-art, extremely realistic VIRTTEX driver simulator--a smart move since the simulator can't roll over.
The researchers found that so many drivers veered off the virtual track during the test that there would have been numerous serious accidents had they actually been on the road. A drowsy driver moving at 70 miles-per-hour will travel nearly the length of a football field if he falls asleep for even two and a half seconds, (and most people sleep a lot longer than that every night).
As the drowsy subjects drove the simulator, researchers experimented with several methods of keeping them alert, such as the use of various lights and sounds. Ford expects to use what it learned from the study in new technology to be introduced into its cars, beginning with its Volvo brand probably because Volvo drivers expect such safeguards given the marque's long involvement in safety issues.
According to the National Sleep Foundation's 2002 "Sleep in America" poll, about one-half of adult drivers (about 100 million people) say they've driven a vehicle in the past year while feeling drowsy. Almost two in 10 people (about 32 million) have actually fallen asleep at the wheel. One percent (approximately two million drivers) had an accident because they dozed off or were too tired to drive. One half of one percent was too tired to even finish the survey.
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