THIS WEEK IN SLEEP NEWS, Oct 30 - Nov 6, Drowsy Driving Edition

 DROWSY DRIVING AWARENESS WEEK  || November 1-7, 2015

Drive Alert, Arrive Alive

This week is Drowsy Driving Awareness Week. All news events included in this special curation will be focused on drowsy driving. To learn more about the hazards and costs of drowsy driving and what you can do to prevent it, please visit the National Sleep Foundation website devoted to this national epidemic. Also, please read this article, "Drowsy Driving: Why It’s Not Worth the Risk," at Sleep.org. 

SHC will return to its normal news curation next week.

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 DROWSY DRIVING NEWS  
54 News Stories About Falling Asleep Behind the Wheel In Just One Week

OCT 30 || ASBURY PARK PRESS
APP, Meridian want to help you sleep

OCT 30 || AZ CENTRAL

Sleeping semi driver gets 1 year in fatal Phoenix crash

OCT 30 || ENERGY FM
Suspended sentence for father who fell asleep at the wheel

OCT 30 || THE HANS INDIA
Indian who drove in sleep awarded community service in New Zealand

OCT 30 || MICHIGAN LIVE
Trucker in I-94 crash may have fallen asleep at the wheel, police say

OCT 30 || MY TWIN TIERS
Motorist Warned About Drowsy Driving After Time Change

OCT 30 || SKIFBULL CHANNEL
10 Terrifying Realities Of Sleep Deprivation (video)

OCT 30 || TRIB LIVE
Crash in White Township injures 3

OCT 30 || WWMT
UPDATED: WB I-94 re-opens following rollover crash 

OCT 31 || CROSSROADS COLLEGE PREP
Get enough sleep! (video)

OCT 31 || MONTREAL GAZETTE
Cyclist dies in accident near Quebec City 

OCT 31 || SALON

Big trucks, big bucks: Heavy-spending trucking industry pushes Congress to relax safety rules: Big rig lobbyists have GOP lawmakers looking to loosen restrictions on drivers, to the horror of safety advocates 

NOV 1 || CBC NEWS CANADA
IN DEPTH || End of daylight saving time 2015: 6 eye-opening facts... One-hour time change linked to effects on heart attack, traffic fatality rates

NOV 1 || MY SAN ANTONIO
Police say driver jumps curb, hits, kills pedestrian

NOV 1 || THE TROY RECORD
DMV officials warn of fatigued driving

NOV 1 || WFLA
Two teens dead, driver injured when she fell asleep at the wheel on CA road

NOV 2 || BANGOR DAILY NEWS
Police: Driver of overturned tractor trailer fell asleep at the wheel

NOV 2 || CBS NEWS EDMONTON
Bravery medal for girl, 5, who saved mom, brother in car wreck: Lexi Shymanski escaped car wreck, climbed steep embankment to flag down passing vehicle

NOV 2 || KSBW
Drowsy driving causes roadway danger

NOV 2 || KTVQ
Blind Laurel athlete defies odds, trains for ski competition--Officials believe Mooney fell asleep at the wheel when he crashed into another car 11 years ago

NOV 2 || NEWSPLEX
Traffic Safety Study Looks at Drowsy Driving

NOV 2 || SHAPE
What's Worse: Sleep Deprivation or Disrupted Sleep?

NOV 3 || BUZZFEED NEWS
Ben Carson: I’ve Literally Fallen Asleep At The Wheel--Several Times Carson has written of several times he fell asleep at the wheel of a car, including two separate instances that occurred decades apart in which he dodged an 18-wheeler

NOV 3 || ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT ONLINE
Soap Star Nathaniel Marston May Have Fallen Asleep at the Wheel in Horrific Car Crash

NOV 3 || HJ NEWS
Preston man faces trial in fatal drowsy driving case

NOV 3 || HOLLAND SENTINEL
Milwaukee man falls asleep behind wheel, crashes into pole in Wright Township

NOV 3 || THE IRISH TIMES
Criticism of lenient penalties on bus and truck operators by RSA: Driver fatigue thought to be deciding factor in 20% of deaths – about 38 fatalities in 2014

NOV 3 || MILWAUKEE JOURNAL-SENTINEL
Vehicle fire closes I-43 for 3 hours after sleeping woman hits disabled semi

NOV 3 || MY NORTHWEST.com
Study: 37 percent of us have fallen asleep at the wheel

NOV 3 || NEWS 12 WRDW ATLANTA
Truck driver accused of hitting and killing man admits to falling asleep behind the wheel

NOV 3 || NORTHWEST TERRITORY NEWS
Driver was chasing snakes before Arnhem Highway crash with truck: A DRIVER who fell asleep at the wheel of his ute, ran a red light and was T-boned by a road train carrying 100,000 litres of fuel had been out “chasing snakes” for photographs in a national park

NOV 4 || ABC NEWS
Wake-Up Call: Alarming Number of Motorists Confess to Drowsy Driving

NOV 4 || AUTOCONNECTED CAR NEWS

NHTSA adds auto-braking to ratings & wakes up to drowsy driving

NOV 4 || GOLDENDALE SENTINEL

Drowsy driving and drunk driving are the same thing

NOV 4 || INQUISITR
Adrian Campos Death: Colombian Soap Star's Husband May Have Fallen Asleep At The Wheel

NOV 4 || KIRKLAND REPORTER
King County Councilmember, Sheriff remind drivers about the dangers of drowsy driving

NOV 4 || NEWSRADIO KONP 
Drowsy Driving Causing Problems On WA Roads

NOV 4 || US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
When Allergy or Cold Medication Makes You Drowsy: How to Stay Alert

NOV 4 || WATERTOWN DAILY NEWS
Potsdam man crashes car after falling asleep, troopers say (video)

NOV 4 || WCHS-TV 8
Slow Lane Reopens On I-64 WB Near Cross Lanes After Wreck, Broken Down Tractor-Trailer--The driver of the accident told police he fell asleep at the wheel. Dispatchers said he suffered a head injury

NOV 4 || WCPO CINCINNATI
Two injured in three-car crash in Delhi

NOV 5 || GLENN SANDLIN
Drowsy Driving Project 2 (video)

NOV 5 || KARE 11
Crash, fuel spill closes Hwy 12 -- Dump truck driver asleep at the wheel?

NOV 5 || KPHO
Deputies: Driver asleep at the wheel hospitalizes 3

NOV 5 || THE NOW DENVER
The Drowsy Driving Epidemic (video)

NOV 5 || VALLEY NEWS LIVE
Healthier Me: Treating Sleep Apnea to Keep Drivers Safe

NOV 5 || WFPL
Heavy-Spending Trucking Industry Pushes Congress to Relax Safety Rules

NOV 5 || WSAW
Drowsiness likely a factor in head-on Mosinee crash

NOV 5 || WSBTV

Woman falls asleep at wheel, car lands on top of others in DeKalb

NOV 6 || 12 KFVS
Police cite driver who fell asleep at the wheel

NOV 6 || COLORADOAN NEWS
Community softens blow for teen paralyzed in hit-and-run

NOV 6 || HUFFINGTON POST PARENTS
Tired Eyes

NOV 6 || KBND
Drowsy driving blamed for Tumalo crash

NOV 6 || PATTAYA ONE
Pick-up driver killed in crash with 18-wheel truck in East Pattaya

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DROWSY DRIVING AWARENESS WEEK: This poster is aimed at night shift workers. You probably know a shift worker. Read more. Learn more.

Who are shift workers? Anyone who works the night or overnight shift. Bus drivers. Police officers. Boat captains. Nurses. Chefs. 911 Dispatchers. Factory workers. Truck drivers. Caregivers. Shipping employees. Pilots. Bartenders. Bakers. Cabbies. Cleaning crews. Road construction workers. Parents of newborns.

You probably know a shift worker.

Click this link to check out the startling research on drowsy driving fatalities as they relate to shift workers.

Image courtesy the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Today is Drowsy Driving Awareness Day in California: How sleep apnea fits into this concern, and why we should ALL be observing this day

Robyn and Phil Konstantin

California Highway Patrol officer Phil Konstantin's wife Robyn Konstantin died in a car accident after falling asleep behind the wheel in 1999.

Ten years ago the state of California passed a resolution unanimously proclaiming April 6 "Drowsy Driving Awareness Day."

Konstantin has become a relentless activist for awareness about the insidious dangers of drowsy driving. It can, and does, happen to everybody... good people who have driver fatigue: sleep-deprived parents of newborn children, teenagers driving to early morning swim practice, nurses coming off a double shift.

Fatigue (caused by whatever reason) can result in a specific phenomena called "microsleeps," in which your brain drops into nap-like periods that last from a few seconds up to 2 minutes. People with insomnia or sleep deprivation suffer from microsleeps. In that brief time, driving can result in the loss of control over a moving vehicle; whether on the highway or in town, this few seconds in artificial "autopilot" can and does result in injury, property damage and death, not only to drivers but to passengers and pedestrians and people in other cars.

Here's an ABC News report that might shake you up, and it should. Drowsy driving, comparable to drunken driving, kills. 

Statistics related to drowsy driving are staggering; what's more, the reality is probably worse than the facts show, as it's difficult to identify a drowsy driver if they don't admit (or even recognize) that they are fatigued. And taking driver fatigue into account for roadway collisions is still a newer practice.

How do sleep breathing disorders relate to drowsy driving? Sleep apnea leads to fragmented sleep that, over time, amounts to chronic sleep deprivation. It can also lead to insomnia, which also results in chronic sleep deprivation.

From the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA):

"In sleep apnea syndrome, brief interruptions of air flow and loss of oxygen during sleep disrupt and fragment sleep. The condition also is associated with loud, chronic snoring. Although people with untreated sleep apnea syndrome may not be aware of the brief disturbances, poor sleep quality often leads to daytime sleepiness."

Consider this: If someone has sleep apnea but does not have a sleep partner, they may never be told they snore loudly or choke in their sleep trying to get adequate oxygen. Also from the NHTSA:

"Although the absolute number of crashes is low, crash risk is increased among people with untreated sleep apnea syndrome (SAS)... In addition, patients with untreated SAS ... perform less well on driving simulation and vigilance or attention tests than do people without these disorders (Findley, 1995; American Thoracic Society, 1994; Haraldsson et al., 1990)."

This makes perfect sense if you understand that people who suffer ongoing, untreated apnea are essentially sleep deprived. And then there's this from the NHTSA:

"Currently, many people with [SAS] are undiagnosed and untreated, unaware of the potentially serious consequences of driving while drowsy, or unaware of the seriousness of the difficulty they may experience in maintaining alertness (Arbus et al., 1991; Hansotia, 1997). Falling asleep at the wheel may be a major factor that motivates undiagnosed patients to seek medical care. The matter is rarely raised in driver or law enforcement education, and even health care professionals may not recognize a history of sleepiness as a risk factor for fall-asleep crashes. Medical systems have been successful in identifying only a fraction of the population with symptomatic sleep apnea (Strohl, Redline, 1996)."

This article in the Archives of Internal Medicine for the Journal of the American Medical Association actively calls for more active participation by the medical community to identify drivers at risk:

"Because drivers with untreated sleep apnea may cause a large number of preventable automobile accidents, physicians have specific duties involving these drivers. 

• First, physicians must try to identify impaired drivers with sleep apnea before they have an accident; routinely asking patients about loud snoring and hypersomnolence may help identify these impaired drivers.

• Second, physicians must consider the diagnosis of sleep apnea when examining patients who fall asleep while driving.

• Next, physicians must warn their patients with sleep apnea about the risks of driving with untreated sleep apnea.

• Finally, physicians must treat any seriously impaired driver with sleep apnea and keep these patients from driving until they can receive successful treatment.

If you suspect you have a sleep breathing problem (even as "innocent" as snoring), please have it checked out. SHC wants you to "Stay Alert, Arrive Alive!"

More statistics and information about Drowsy Driving can be found at this site sponsored by the National Sleep Foundation.

Here is the American Sleep Apnea Association position statement on driving and sleep apnea.