Drowsiness behind the wheel is a serious danger that can put the safety of drivers, passengers and other road users at risk. It is difficult to estimate how many accidents involve sleeping drivers, but the Civil Guard estimates that, in 2021 alone, 7% of fatal accidents could be caused by this reason. According to calculations released by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), since the last decade at least 75 people have lost their lives and 250 have been seriously injured each year due to drowsiness while driving.
Many drivers resort to all kinds of strategies to stay alert and combat drowsiness. Some more common practices are drinking coffee or caffeinated drinks, opening the windows to get fresh air, or listening to music at high volume. All of these measures can provide temporary relief, but they are not effective solutions when it comes to drowsy driving.
Traffic authorities recommend that drivers, in situations like these, stop their vehicle safely at a rest area and take a short nap or rest adequately before continuing their journey.
Rest areas are one of the infrastructures designed by traffic authorities that can help prevent accidents in which sleep is behind. So are the side rumble strips, which warn drivers that their vehicle is about to leave the road. The DGT adds three other structures in this section: the physical separation of directions, the 2 1 roads with a central lane for overtaking that alternates between the two directions of traffic and the lenient margins to avoid road departures.
In China, traffic officials have decided to go a little further in the search for solutions to prevent drivers from falling asleep at the wheel due to fatigue and lack of sleep. As part of this initiative, authorities are testing the effectiveness of an innovative laser system on roads with the aim of keeping drivers awake.
A video that has gone viral on social media shows a beam of bright lights flashing on the road. The images have been shared by the X (formerly Twitter) Science Girl account, which writes in the post that lasers are used to prevent drivers from falling asleep on a Chinese road. In another post, she added that the video was taken on the Qingdao-Yinchuan Expressway and that the lights are designed to “combat fatigue” for the driver.
“A video taken on the Qingdao-Yinchuan Expressway shows vibrant laser lights floating above vehicles. Mr. Li, the person behind the camera, reported that these laser lights designed to combat fatigue quickly revitalized him and reduced his exhaustion during a long night,” reads the Science Girl post.
Although not all the details of this project have been revealed, it has been reported that the lasers use state-of-the-art sensors to monitor the behavior of drivers. In this way, when the system detects signs of drowsiness or distraction on the part of a driver, visual and audible alerts are activated with the aim of keeping the driver in a state of alert and focused on driving.
