Nearly half of American adults admit that they’ve fought to stay awake while driving, a new survey finds.
Of the more than 2,000 respondents, 45% said they’d struggled to remain awake while behind the wheel, while 48% said they’d never driven drowsy, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) survey conducted in September.
Each year in the United States, drowsy driving causes an average of 328,000 crashes, including 6,400 fatal accidents, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. National Drowsy Driving Prevention Week is Nov. 3 to 10.
“Driving while drowsy is similar to drunk driving with regards to the delays in reaction time and impairment in decision-making,” AASM president Dr. Kelly Carden said in an academy news release. “Drowsy driving can be deadly, yet it is 100% preventable.”
