Most drivers have had the scary experience of briefly dozing off behind the wheel only to awake in a panic as one’s vehicle drifts off the shoulder of the road. Studies show that the average motorist is getting fewer hours of sleep each night. Driver fatigue is a leading cause of serious Mississippi auto accidents resulting in life-altering injuries and wrongful death. Sixty percent of drivers in the U.S. admit to driving while drowsy and 37 percent have fallen asleep while driving. There are few driving practices more dangerous than following asleep for a three-second micro nap traveling at freeways speeds. While dozing for that short period at 65 miles per hour, a vehicle will travel the length of a football field before you realize that you dozed off.

Drowsy driving is as great a risk of causing serious auto accident as drunk driving including AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that drowsy driving causes as many as 100,000 accidents annually and results in forty thousand injuries and in excess of 1,500 fatalities. While drowsy or fatigued driving in Mississippi presents a danger similar to drunk driving, the practice of drowsy driving is not viewed with the same public condemnation.

Fortunately, a growing number of technologies are being developed to prevent drowsy driving or fatigue based accidents. One common form of technology that is being used by several car manufacturers to reduce the risk of fatigue related accidents is lane avoidance systems. Although there are multiple versions of these auto accident avoidance systems, generally they sound an alarm if a driver appears to be drifting into another lane. There are even accident avoidance systems that provide a more customized approach based on a driver profile including sleeping patterns, length of trip, medications and other data that impacts the tendency of a driver to be involved in a fatigue based auto accident in Mississippi.

There are a number of strategies that can be used to avoid drowsy driving including:

• A driver should travel at times that are consistent with one’s normal waking hours
• You should get a minimum of six hours of sleep at night before taking a trip
• If you are feeling tired, pull over and take a nap.
• You should schedule regular breaks every couple of hours on the road.

Even when a driver does not fall asleep, fatigue can adversely affect one’s driving ability by causing blurred vision, impaired concentration, slowed reflexes and poor judgment or decision making. Mississippi drowsy driving car accidents are especially tragic because they are entirely avoidable. At the Barrett Law Office, we have deep roots in Mississippi. We have been fighting for the rights of auto accident victims throughout Mississippi for over 75 years. Our experienced Mississippi auto accident attorneys offer a free case evaluation so contact us today at (662) 834-2376.