Archive for January, 2013

Three Percent of Connecticut Drivers May Be Sleeping at the Wheel Right Now

If you live in Connecticut and you drove anywhere today, there is a chance that you may have been sharing the road with a drowsy driver. In fact, there’s a chance you may have been sharing the road not just with someone who was a little tired, but instead with someone who was actually closing their eyes and dozing off for at least a second or two.

Our Hartford auto accident attorneys believe that drowsy driving is a major danger for every driver in the state of Connecticut. A new Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study underscores just how dangerous this driving behavior is. We urge everyone who ever gets behind the wheel in Connecticut to consider the data on drowsy driving and to make a commitment to refrain from the risky practice.

Drowsy Drivers Put Connecticut Residents at Risk

The CDC’s recent survey is the largest that has ever been conducted on the issue of drowsy driving. To obtain information on driver fatigue, the CDC conducted a survey by telephone of adults in a total of 19 states in the U.S., as well as conducting a survey in D.C. In total, more than 147,000 adults responded. One of the states whose residents CDC contacted their survey in was the state of Connecticut, where they called 6,409 people.

According to the information obtained from these respondents, who are meant to be a representative sample of the population as a whole, 147 of the drivers indicated they had fallen asleep while they were driving in the 30 days immediately before completion of the survey.

This data means that around 3 percent of Connecticut drivers said that yes, they had dozed off as they drove. Sadly, this data may not even tell the whole story either. Many drivers might nod off for just a split second, which is long enough to get into an accident but not long enough for the driver to be aware of what happened. If a driver falls asleep behind the wheel and isn’t aware of it, he wouldn’t have reported yes to the CDC in their survey.

Still, even if there are only 3 percent of drivers falling asleep, this means that for every 100 drivers you encounter on the road, three of them may be sleeping. When you think about how many people you encounter on your morning commute, you’ll notice quickly that there a lot more than 100 people on your journey. This means that there is a very real chance you may be sharing the roads with a sleeping driver.

Connecticut’s average of 3 percent was below the overall average of 4.2 drivers responding in the affirmative to the question of whether they’d dozed off as they drove. Still, while Connecticut may have slightly less drowsy drivers than the national average, even a 3 percent rate means that there are many people engaging in dangerous behavior. Don’t be one of them- make a commitment today never to drive if you are too tired to be safe.

If you’ve been hurt in a drowsy driving accident, contact the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone & Morelli today by calling  1-800-WIN-WIN-1 or at 100 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105.