Every year, 75 people lose their lives and 250 are seriously injured due to drowsiness behind the wheel. This data, released by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) during the celebration of the Sleep and Driving Day, reveals a public health problem that highlights the need to raise awareness among drivers about the dangers of fatigue when driving. A vehicle.
The figures are alarming. The Traffic Group of the Civil Guard suspects that in 2021 alone, 7% of fatal accidents could be caused by drowsiness while driving. An estimate supported by statistics collected by the Spanish Sleep Society, which indicate that we sleep an average of 6.8 hours each night, that is, below the 7 to 9 hours recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). . Likewise, the Spanish Society of Neurology states that 30% of the population suffers from some type of sleep disorder (4% chronically).
Sleeping fewer hours than necessary can end in tragedy on the road because it causes daytime drowsiness that worsens if drugs or alcohol or certain types of medications, especially psychotropic drugs, are consumed. The risk of a driver who has slept only 5 hours suffering a traffic accident is 5 times greater than that of a rested person. If you combine sleep and alcohol, that risk is multiplied by 30.
The influence that drowsiness exerts on drivers' brains is devastating: the ability to respond and concentrate is low and maneuvers are not as precise. Reflexes are also altered and driving is more aggressive. However, if there is something on which a lack of rest has a particularly dangerous impact, it is the perception of risk, experts say.
The typical road accident caused by sleep is a road trip, which usually occurs at night and in which the driver is traveling alone and hits an object. The result is usually fatal because the victim does not brake: she was asleep, the DGT reports in the magazine Tráfico y Seguridad Vial.
The likelihood of these types of accidents could be reduced as vehicles increasingly adopt Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS), which include features designed to help prevent drowsiness and its effects on driving. Emergency braking is one of the most effective elements to prevent an accident with fatal consequences.
On the other hand, the Euro NCAP protocol contemplates progress in other aspects related to ADAS for keeping the car in the lane.
Traffic recommends that during long journeys drivers make stops to rest every 2 hours or every 200 kilometers. This practice helps reduce fatigue and the risk of accidents related to drowsiness behind the wheel, allowing motorists to stretch their legs, rest their eyes and stay alert during the trip.
Failure to do so is likely to cause feelings of drowsiness and fatigue, which significantly increases the risk of suffering an accident related to drowsiness while driving. In addition to yawning and nodding off, there are other symptoms that announce the imminence of sleep, such as mind wandering, restlessness in the seat or the inability to remember what has happened in the last few kilometers.
Even so, 61% of drivers surveyed by a study by the Línea Directa Foundation on accidents during holiday periods with data between 2012 and 2021 acknowledged not resting every 200 kilometers or 2 hours, as recommended by the DGT, and 1.5 million He tried to overcome fatigue and complete his route because they preferred it to stopping along the way.
According to Álvaro Gómez, director of the DGT's Road Safety Observatory, we must teach about the danger of drowsiness while driving. "Turning on the air conditioning, listening to music, opening the windows, accelerating, talking to the co-driver... are measures that have no impact on what should be done, which is stopping and resting or letting someone else drive."
