According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety‘s 2011 safety culture survey, 96 percent of drivers agree that driving while dangerous is unacceptable, but 32 percent say they had a hard time keeping their eyes open while driving during the past month.

The study’s results are important when you consider one of every six fatal crashes and one in eight crashes causing serious injury involved drowsy driving, according to a study last year by the AAA Foundation. This percentage is higher than previous estimates, confirming what researchers believe is an underestimation of the impact drowsy driving has on car crashes, injuries and deaths.

While most drivers recognize the serious impact of drowsy driving, researchers say this survey shows that many have a “Do What I Say, Not What I Do” outlook when getting behind the wheel.

“Drowsy driving kills, just as sure as drunk, drugged and distracted driving does,” said Pete Kissinger, AAA Foundation President and CEO, in a news release. “Drivers have a tendency to underestimate the impact being tired has on their driving ability, which puts themselves and others at risk.”

Researchers say fatigue has an impact on reaction time, judgment and vision, causing sleepy drivers  to behave in similar ways to those who are drunk.

The AAA Foundation and AAA want to raise awareness among all drivers of the serious impact of this deadly and common driving practice.

According to recent research by the AAA Foundation, two of every five drivers (41 percent) admit to having fallen asleep at the wheel at some point, with one out of every 10 (10 percent) saying they had done so in the previous year.

“What’s so alarming is that over half of these drivers reported having fallen asleep while driving on high-speed roads,” said Jake Nelson, AAA’s Director of Traffic Safety Advocacy and Research. “These data underscore the importance of educating drivers about the dangers of drowsy driving.”

Are You Too Drowsy to Drive?

Check out these warning signs:

• Difficulty keeping your eyes open and focused, and/or having heavy eyelids
• Difficulty keeping your head up
• Swerving in and out of your lane, tailgating, and/or hitting rumble strips
• Missing traffic signs or driving past your intended exit
• Repeatedly yawning and rubbing your eyes
• Inability to clearly remember the last few miles driven
• Feeling restless or irritable

Safety Tips to Prevent Drowsy Driving

• Get plenty of rest (at least seven hours of sleep) the night before you travel.
• Stop driving if you get sleepy because someone who is tired could fall asleep at any time.
• Travel during times when you are usually awake, and plan to stay the night rather than driving straight through.
• Schedule a break and stop every two hours or every 100 miles of your trip.
• Drink a caffeinated beverage, but plan accordingly as it typically takes about 30 minutes for caffeine to enter the bloodstream.
• Travel with someone who stays awake  with you.

For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

However, researchers also acknowledge the proficiency of older drivers may be better to begin with.

“With ambulatory surgical procedures becoming more common as well as the increased use of short acting anesthetics, our team recognized that patients may have a need to drive sooner than the 24-hour waiting period typically recommended,” said Dr. Asokumar Buvanendran, lead study author, in a news release.

The study examined the safety of anesthestics as it relates to a patient’s ability to drive before and after surgery.

Researchers tested 198 patients who underwent minor same day surgery using a driving simulator, depicting a drive from the hospital to their homes.

Patients were tested at two time points, right before surgery and again immediately before they were to leave the center, after a minor surgical procedure while under sedation.

The primary measurement was the amount of “weaving” on the road. Researchers also measured the number of accidents and the number of driving violations, like running red lights and improper lane change.

They found that weaving after surgery (average of 1.64 feet) was essentially the same as before surgery (1.63 feet), indicating that the drugs given for surgery had effectively worn off by the time patients were discharged and ready to leave the hospital.

“We also looked to see if older patients were in more or less pain than younger patients and whether that played into the ability to drive,” said Dr. Buvanendran. “We found the amount of pain did not play much importance in the final analysis.”

But speed was a factor. During the experiment, older patients drove slower and had corresponding better weaving scores because they were able to quickly correct deviations. Their cautious driving style led to a better and safer driving score overall.

Researchers say older patients may be more sensitive or perceptive to the effects of anesthesia than younger patients and the older patients notice this and correspondingly drive more cautiously, an inherent safety mechanism.

However, researchers say overall age was not an effective indicator of reduced ability to drive. More research is needed to evaluate the effects of age and driving both under more controlled conditions and real world conditions, as it is possible that older patients may have better real-world driving ability due to their more cautious driving style.

For more on driving safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

Patients fare better if they have treatment within six months of the start of symptoms, rather than waiting after six months, researchers say. Symptoms include pain, function, general health, work status and patient satisfaction.

“Patients often ask their physicians whether the duration of their symptoms will affect their potential for a full recovery,“ said orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey A. Rihn, one of the study authors. Addressing this issue, he said, was the goal of this particular study.

Lumbar discectomy, a common spinal surgical procedure,  involves removing the herniated disc material pressing on a nerve root or the spinal canal to treat lumbar disc herniation. Several studies have shown the effectiveness of this procedure over the last 30 years.

However, despite its proven effectiveness, there has been no consensus on timing of this surgical procedure, with recommendations for waiting ranging from “an appropriate amount of time” to 12 months after symptoms have begun.

“According to our study and generally speaking, patients who had symptoms for more than six months had less improvement in pain, function, general health, work status, and patient satisfaction,” said Dr. Rihn.

Researchers observed 1,192 patients enrolled in the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial, which was conducted at 13 multidisciplinary spinal practices in 11 states. The patients were 19 and older and suffered from various symptoms of lumbar disc herniation.

Patients in this study were assigned to either operative treatment — lumbar disentomb — or nonoperative treatment — such as physical therapy, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, and/or counseling with home exercise instruction.

The patients completed questionnaires at the start of the study and at follow-up intervals of six weeks, three months, six months, one year, two years, and four years after treatment.

Study authors used various tools to analyze the outcomes of the two types of treatments. They compared the treatment outcomes of the 927 patients who had symptoms for six months or less to the 265 patients who had symptoms six months or longer prior to enrolling in the study.

During all follow-up intervals, outcomes were comparatively worse in patients who had symptoms for more than six months prior to treatment than in those who had symptoms for six months or less.

Surgical treatment was also significantly more effective than nonoperative treatment, the study authors found. However, the increased benefit of surgery over nonoperative treatment was not dependent on the duration of symptoms.

While patients who have endured symptoms for longer than six months can find relief with surgery or nonoperative treatment, they may not reap the full benefit as those who had symptoms for six months or less, Dr, Rihn said, noting that surgery still had the greater benefit over nonoperative treatment in either case.

For more on  accident-related medical issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

Until recently, SUVs and pickups were more likely than cars or minivans of the same weight to be involved in crashes that killed occupants of other cars or minivans. That’s no longer the case for SUVs, and for pickups the higher risk is much less pronounced than it had been.

For example, among 1-4-year-old vehicles weighing 3,000-3,499 pounds, SUVs were involved in crashes that killed car/minivan occupants at a rate of 44 deaths per million registered vehicle years in 2000-01. That rate dropped by nearly two-thirds to 16 in 2008-09. In comparison, cars and minivans in the same weight category were involved in the deaths of other car/minivan occupants at a slightly higher rate of 17 per million in 2008-09.

The researchers attribute much of the change to two things: improved crash protection in the cars and minivans, thanks to side airbags and stronger structures, and newer designs of SUVs and pickups that align their front-end energy-absorbing structures with those of cars.

The more compatible designs are the result of efforts by automakers, the government, and the Institute to address the problem of mismatched vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asked automakers to address the compatibility issue amid concern about the changing vehicle mix on U.S. roads. Participating automakers included BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Isuzu, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki, Toyota, and Volkswagen.

The companies agreed to build the front ends of SUVs and pickups so that their energy-absorbing structures would line up better with those of cars, reducing the likelihood that an SUV or pickup would override a car in a collision. Better alignment allows both vehicles’ front ends to manage the crash energy, helping to keep it away from the occupant compartments.

The automakers also pledged to strengthen head protection in all vehicles in order to improve outcomes when an SUV or pickup strikes another vehicle in the side. They accomplished this by installing more head-protecting side airbags.

“By working together, the automakers got life-saving changes done quickly,” says Joe Nolan, the Institute’s chief administrative officer and a co-author of the new study. “The new designs have made a big difference on the road.”

Institute researchers looked at 1-4-year-old SUVs, pickups, and cars/minivans in 2000-01 and 2008-09 and compared the number of car and minivan occupants killed in 2-vehicle crashes with those models per million registered vehicle years. (A registered vehicle year is 1 vehicle registered for 1 year, 2 for 6 months, etc.) The cars or minivans in which people were killed, known as crash partner vehicles, could be of any age, size, and weight.

Data on crash deaths came from the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System, and registration information came from R.L. Polk & Co.

In both 2000-01 and 2008-09, the number of crash partner deaths generally went up as vehicle weight increased. This isn’t surprising since vehicle weight is a key factor in the outcome of crashes.

However, in the first period, SUVs were more deadly to people in other vehicles than cars of the same weight, and pickups were more deadly than SUVs.

Between 2000-01 and 2008-09, the rate of crash partner deaths declined for all weight categories of all 3 types of vehicles, except the relatively small group of cars and minivans weighing 4,500-4,999 pounds.

Improvements in occupant protection in the crash partner cars and minivans helped lower the number of deaths. The spread of Electronic Stability Control or ESC, as well as changes in travel patterns due to the sluggish economy and high gas prices, likely also contributed to this decline.

Crash partner death rates for pickups, SUVs, and cars/minivans in 2008-09 weren’t as far apart as they were in 2000-01. Among 1-4-year-old vehicles in a given weight category, an SUV usually posed no more risk to people in a car or minivan than another car or minivan. Pickups still fatally injured people in cars and minivans at a higher rate, particularly in frontal crashes.

“Pickups lagged behind other vehicles in getting ESC, and designs of some top-selling models were slow to change. Those facts help explain why the numbers didn’t improve as much for pickups as for SUVs,” Nolan says. “Also, pickups often carry loads, so the trucks in these crashes could be a good deal heavier than their curb weights.”

In general, SUVs and pickups are heavier than cars, so in that sense different types of vehicles always will be mismatched. But the study shows that, beyond weight, differences in vehicle styles don’t have to be a safety problem.

The study of car/minivan crash partner deaths is the latest piece of Institute research showing that SUVs aren’t the safety concern they once were. Recently calculated driver death rates for 2005-08 models show that drivers of SUVs are among the least likely to die in a crash. That change is due largely to ESC.

“Whether you’re in an SUV or just sharing the road with one,” Nolan says, “recent improvements to these vehicles are making you safer.”

For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed data from the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey for this new study.

“The four million adults who drink and drive each year put everyone on the road at risk,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., in a news release. “In fact, nearly 11,000 people are killed every year in crashes that involve an alcohol–impaired driver.”

The study also found that:

• Men were responsible for 81 percent of drinking and driving in 2010.
• Young men, ages 21–34, made up only 11 percent of the U.S. population in 2010, yet were responsible for 32 percent of all episodes of drinking and driving.
• Eighty–five percent of drinking and driving episodes were reported by people who also reported binge drinking. Binge drinking means five or more drinks for men or four or more drinks for women during a short period of time.

“Drunk driving is a public health problem with far–reaching effects,” said Linda C. Degutis, director of CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. “Drunk drivers, who have delayed reaction times and reflexes, put even the most responsible drivers and pedestrians in harm’s way. Public support to prevent drunk driving is strong. Thankfully, there are proven ways to protect everyone on the road.”

Proven, effective strategies to prevent alcohol–impaired driving include:

• Sobriety checkpoints: At sobriety checkpoints drivers are stopped to assess their level of alcohol impairment. According to the Transportation Research Board, more widespread, frequent use of these checkpoints could save about 1,500 to 3,000 lives on the road each year.
• Minimum legal drinking age laws: These laws prohibit selling alcohol to people under age 21 in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Keeping 21 as the minimum legal drinking age helps keep young, inexperienced drivers from drinking and driving.
• Ignition interlocks: These devices prevent drivers who were convicted of alcohol–impaired driving from operating their vehicles if they have been drinking. Interlocks are effective in reducing re–arrest rates from drinking and driving by about two–thirds while the device is on the vehicle.

For more on driver safety, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

Researchers now are talking about the handheld devices in terms of obsession and addiction — with the potential for disaster when combined with motor vehicle operation.

Brains of many cell-phone-using young adults react to ringing and vibrating smartphones as they would to the arrival of a loved one, a recent study in San Diego suggests.

The same researcher reports that the sound of a vibrating cell phone ranked third among the most powerful and affecting sounds of the modern world — after the Intel chime and a baby’s giggle. Perhaps you’ve heard the slang for Blackberry devices: Crackberries.

However, University of Arkansas researchers say the problem may not be addiction, but obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Management of objectionable behaviors linked to OCD and addictions are totally different approaches, they said.

Professor Moez Limayem found that “the underlying motivation to use a mobile phone is not pleasure, as predicted by addictions studies, but rather a response to heightened stress and anxiety.”

That stress often results from feeling an exaggerated need to attend to a family life while in the workplace, and to respond to business demands while with family and friends, they said.

The Arkansas findings showed that “the most significant predictor of dangerous mobile phone usage was answering text messages while driving. Incoming alerts triggered dangerous usage. Conversely, initiating text messages was not a significant factor.”

That means that the driving force is to respond to a call or text, not to stay in touch at inappropriate times.

“The possibility that mobile phone usage is a compulsion rather than an addiction may suggest more effective legislative interventions and prevention tactics,” Limayem said.

That view supports education over punitive action such as tickets and fines, the Arkansas team said. Use of differing ring tones to separate important and less vital callers could help as well, they said.

For more on safe driving issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

That’s the message from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Deputy Administrator Ronald Medford who stopped in Florida recently for a town hall meeting to discuss strategies to  prevent such tragedies.

Nationwide, at least 27 children have died this summer after being left unattended in vehicles. The recent town hall meeting coincided with Child Passenger Safety Week,  an annual national campaign emphasizing the importance of properly securing all children in appropriate car seats, booster seats, or seat belts – every trip, every time.

“When it comes to child heat stroke in hot cars, one thing is clear: these deaths and injuries are 100 percent preventable,” said NHTSA Deputy Administrator Medford.

“Our challenge as a public health and safety agency is to pave the way for government, advocates, and our communities to put an end to these unnecessary tragedies,” Medford said in a news release.

NHTSA research shows that hyperthermia, commonly known as heat stroke, is the leading cause of non-crash vehicle deaths for children under the age of fourteen. Reports by the San Francisco State University Department of Geosciences show that at least 49 children under the age of 14 died in 2010 due to hyperthermia.

The body temperature of children can rise three to five times as quickly as an adult. Not only are children left alone in vehicles during hot weather at risk of death from hyperthermia, those who survive could be subject to serious injuries including brain damage, permanent blindness, and organ failure, among others.

“It’s critical for parents and caregivers to know that hyperthermia is a problem that sees no social, economic, or racial boundaries — child heat stroke can happen to anyone,” Medford said. “As we head into more temperate fall weather, we must remain vigilant, as the temperature inside a car can still climb well into the dangerous range for a young child.”

The town hall meeting included area health professionals, law officers, and concerned parents and is the latest push in NHTSA’s nationwide effort to step up child heat stroke education and prevention.

In July, NHTSA convened a roundtable in Washington, DC, to raise awareness about hyperthermia, bringing together for the first time ever child safety experts, representatives from the automotive industry, manufacturers, and victims’ families. NHTSA officials have already made stops in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Nevada.

For more on child safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach child injury attorney.

“Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in the United States for teenagers. From 2000-2008, more than 23,000 drivers, and 14,000 passengers aged 16 to 19 years were killed,” according to the study published in the Sept. 14 issue of JAMA. “Graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems have now been adopted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to reduce crashes among teenaged drivers.

Graduated driver licensing is structured to ensure that young novices gain extensive experience driving in low-risk conditions before they ‘graduate’ in steps to driving in riskier conditions. GDL programs in the United States apply only to beginning drivers younger than 18 years.

“The question remains whether the benefits of GDL among drivers to whom provisions directly apply (16- and 17-year-olds) continue, are reduced, or may even be reversed, among older teenagers for whom the effects are only secondary. Previous attempts to quantify the result of GDL for all teenaged drivers across multiple states have experienced methodological difficulties that rendered conclusions unclear,” the authors write.

Scott V. Masten, Ph.D., of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Sacramento, Calif., and colleagues conducted a study to estimate the association of GDL with driver involvement in fatal crashes for 16- to 19-year-olds. The study included an analysis of data of quarterly 1986-2007 incidence of fatal crashes involving drivers 16 to 19 years of age for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

There was a comparison of state-quarters with stronger GDL programs (restrictions on both nighttime driving and allowed passengers) or weaker GDL programs (restrictions on either nighttime driving or allowed passengers) with state-quarters without GDL.

Over the study period, fatal crash incidence among teen drivers increased with age, from 16 to 17-year-old drivers before reaching a plateau at the ages of 18 and 19. After adjusting for various factors, the researchers found that stronger GDL programs (relative to no GDL program) were statistically associated with lower fatal crash incidence only for 16-year-old drivers.

“For 18-year-old drivers, the rate of fatal crashes was statistically higher for stronger GDL programs than for programs having none of the key GDL elements. Rate ratios for 17-year-old drivers, 19-year-old drivers, and 16- to 19-year-old drivers combined were not statistically different from the null,” the authors write.

The authors also found that stronger GDL programs appeared to be associated with a larger reduction in fatal crashes among 16-year-old drivers than weaker GDL programs but with a similar increase in fatal crashes involving 18-year-old drivers.

“This suggests that modifying weaker existing state GDL programs to include nighttime as well as passenger restrictions may result in additional crash savings among 16-year-olds as well as a larger net savings among teen drivers overall.”

The researchers estimate that since enactment of the first program in 1996, GDL programs (weaker and stronger combined) have been associated with 1,348 fewer fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers and with 1,086 more fatal crashes involving 18-year-old drivers.

“The net associations found in this study represent several possible crash-reducing influences of GDL, including less driving among younger teens; reduced exposure to high-risk conditions, resulting from more driving while supervised by an adult and less driving late at night or with multiple young passengers; and safer driving, resulting from improved learning,” the authors write.

The researchers add that the reasons why GDL programs appear to be associated with higher incidence of fatal crashes for 18-year-old drivers are not known.

“The amount learned during the GDL process may not be comparable to what was learned previously, when young drivers learned through experience alone. Mandatory periods of supervised driving clearly reduce risk while novices learn how to handle a vehicle, gain insights into the behaviors of other drivers, and develop understanding of the physical driving environment. Supervised driving, however, is co-driving, and some important lessons of experience, such as the need for self-regulation and what it means to be fully responsible for a vehicle, cannot be learned until teens begin driving alone. Under GDL this now occurs at least 6 months later, reducing the time that young drivers have to learn from driving on their own before they turn 18.”

“Research is needed to determine what accounts for the increase among 18-year-old drivers and whether this increase occurs among nonfatal crashes as well,“ the authors write. “This may suggest whether, and how, changes to licensing policy might reduce this association.”

For more on traffic safety, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

Maybe it’s happened to you. You end up at your destination and don’t even remember much of the drive. You jerk awake when you hear the rumble strips and realize the vehicle was drifting toward the shoulder. Drowsy driving is impaired driving.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that each year, driver fatigue results in 100,000 police-reported crashes, 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries and $12.5 billion in monetary losses.

Florida Rep. Alan Williams, District 8, sponsored the legislation that created the Ronshay Dugans Act in 2010, which designates the first week of September as Drowsy Driving Prevention Week. This year’s theme is “You Snooze, You Lose: Don’t Drive Drowsy.”

“Ronshay lost her life after a driver crashed into the bus that she was riding,” said  Williams in a news release. “Her family shares their story about their loss so other families might be spared this tragedy. Drowsy driving can be eliminated with simple planning and a conscious decision to pull over when you know you are tired. We want everyone traveling Florida roads to arrive safely at their destinations.”

Who’s most at risk? According  to the NHTSA:

• Young people, especially males under age 26.
• Shift workers and people with long work hours. Working the night shift increases your risk by nearly six times; rotating-shift workers and people working more than 60 hours a week also are at higher risk.
• Commercial and long-haul drivers. About 15 percent of all heavy truck crashes involve fatigue.
• People with undiagnosed or untreated sleep disorders are seven times more likely to fall asleep at the wheel.
• Business travelers who spend many hours driving or may be jet lagged.

Regardless of a driver’s vocation, age, sex, health condition or other characteristics, any driver can become overconfident and fall victim to drowsy driving. Measures that drivers can take to stay alert behind the steering wheel are:

• Get a good night’s sleep before driving. Good overall sleep habits will go a long way to prevent drowsy driving.
• Take a companion on long trips. Not only will you have someone to share the driving and help keep you awake, but you’ll be able to save energy by carpooling too.
• Schedule regular breaks, about every 100 miles or every couple of hours.
• Do not consume alcohol and avoid medications that cause drowsiness.

For more on traffic safety issues, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.

The new Alberta distracted driving law goes into effect Sept. 1. The fine is $172 (total).

In addition to banning text messaging, emailing and the use of handheld cell phones for drivers, the law prohibits other use of various handheld electronic communications devices, grooming, non-commercial use of CB radios, GPS data entry, writing, drawing, sketching, reading of printed materials and the use of certain video screens (TVs, DVDs).

Use of cell phones with hands-free attachments is permitted, although that wasn’t a given: Last fall’s debate over Bill 16 focused on whether hands-free phone use should be allowed at all.

“This legislation is another step forward in our traffic-safety efforts and an important addition to our overall traffic safety strategy,” Minister of Transportation Luke Ouellette said in a news release. “I am confident this new law, which is practical and enforceable, will help to keep Albertans safer while on the road — and that’s something we can all support.”

Enforcement of the law springing from Alberta’s Traffic Safety (Distracted Driving) Amendment Act (of 2010) begins in time for the Labor Day holiday weekend. There is no grace period.

The province calls the new law “the most comprehensive distracted driving legislation in Canada.” Ouellette says the law represents “a bold approach (that) goes beyond restricting cell phones and deals with the broader issue of distracted driving.”

In addition to the typical vehicles found on highways, the act applies to farm vehicles and bicycles.

The law gives law officers flexibility in citing offenders. Tougher penalties can be assessed under the “driving carelessly” provisions of the existing Traffic Safety Act — a $402 fine and 6 demerit points against the offender’s license.

“The law is intended to be practical, effective and enforceable,” the Transportation Department says. It uses these examples: “Having a simple snack is allowed, but eating a meal from a plate with a knife and fork is not allowed. Glancing at a map is allowed, but reading a book or newspaper is not.”

The inclusion of personal grooming is unusual in Canada and the U.S. While frequently cited (by dubious lawmakers) during distracted driving debates in North America, this is one of the few times a grooming-while-driving ban actually become law.

For more on traffic safety, see the library of articles by Daytona Beach car accident attorney.