PennDOT: Spring Forward, Don't Drive Drowsy

From the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation:

Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday, March 14, at 2 a.m., and PennDOT is urging motorists to get enough sleep before driving.

With the return to Daylight Saving Time (DST), clocks "spring forward" one hour – and most Americans lose an hour of sleep.

According to PennDOT, over a five-year period ending in 2009, there were 11,385 crashes and 110 fatalities involving fatigued drivers statewide. The peak hours for drowsy driving crashes are 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. (14 percent of these crashes).

Each year, drowsy driving crashes throughout the United States result in at least 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries and $12.5 billion in monetary losses, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Like alcohol and drugs, sleep loss or fatigue impairs driving skills such as hand-eye coordination, reaction time, vision, awareness of surroundings, decision-making, judgment and inhibition.

PennDOT recommends motorists get enough sleep (seven to nine hours), take breaks about every two hours on long trips, stay away from sedating medications, and always buckle up before driving.

The return to DST caps off National Sleep Awareness Week, which runs from March 7 through 13. According to a study by the National Sleep Foundation, 60 percent of Americans have driven while feeling sleepy and 37 percent admit to actually having fallen asleep at the wheel in the past year. Drivers who sleep less than six hours per night on weekdays are significantly more likely to risk a crash than drivers who sleep eight hours or more. Research also has identified young males, shift workers, commercial drivers and people with untreated sleep disorders or with short-term or chronic sleep deprivation as being at increased risk for having a fall-asleep crash.

The federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandated that, beginning in 2007, DST would begin the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday of November. DST formerly began on the first Sunday of April and formerly ended on the last Sunday of October.

To learn about other unsafe driving behaviors, or how to be a safer driver, visit www.DriveSafePA.org