When a driver is extremely fatigued, they’re more prone to making mistakes. Someone who is tired is not going to have very good reaction times, for example, so they may not be able to avoid an accident that they would have avoided if they were alert. Fatigue can also impact decision-making abilities, similarly to being under the influence.
One thing that can sometimes happen to a fatigued driver is that they experience short micro-sleeps. These generally only last for a few seconds. The driver simply feels like they’re nodding off at the wheel. They don’t even realize when it happens, but they will often suddenly jerk back to wakefulness, surprised and unaware that they were asleep just a second ago.
How far do you drive?
There are certainly many people who experience a micro-sleep and wake up to find that they are still on the road, driving between the lines. They may roll down the window or try to refocus and stay alert so that it doesn’t happen again.
But what drivers need to remember is that sleeping for just a few seconds can cause them to cover an extraordinary amount of highway. Some estimate that a micro-sleep lasting just four or five seconds could still be long enough for the car to cover the length of an entire football field. This is roughly 100 yards, or 300 feet. It’s easy to imagine how a driver who is asleep for that long could easily cause an accident with another vehicle.
Even if you stay alert and awake, you could be injured in an accident caused by someone else. Be sure you know what legal steps to take.
