Falling asleep at the wheel has been shown to have sometimes fatal consequences. In Putnam County, in 2007, a 25-year-old Garrison paramedic was killed when the ambulance he was riding in ran off Route 9 and struck a tree. Lamb was a Carmel firefighter and member of the Carmel Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The driver of the ambulance, who apparently fell asleep, was seriously injured.
According to a study done by AAA, one in six fatal crashes and one in eight crashes resulting in hospitalization were the results of drowsy driving.
Robert Sinclair, a spokesman for AAA, said drivers should have at least six hours of sleep before they get behind the wheel.
"There is no substitute for sleep," Sinclair said. "That's the bottom line. Take a 15-20 minute nap if you need to. Opening the window and/or playing the radio doesn't help."
Younger drivers age 16-24 were nearly twice as likely to be involved in a drowsy driving crash as drivers age 40-59. Two out of three drivers involved in a drowsy driving crash were men.
Vehicles in which the driver was accompanied by a passenger were nearly 50 percent less likely to be involved in a drowsy driving related crash.
About 57 percent of drowsy driving crashes involved the driver drifting into other lanes or even off the road. One in four drivers said they had driven while they had a hard time keeping their eyes open in the past month.
More than half of drivers who said they fell asleep said it occurred on a high speed highway, 59 percent of drivers who had fall asleep said they had been driving for less than an hour.
Drivers age 24 and younger were most likely to report having fallen asleep in the past year, but they were least likely to report having ever fallen asleep. This is consistent with other studies that have found younger drivers to have a higher risk of falling asleep at the wheel.
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