JACKSON, Miss. – Around 54 people die every year because of drinking and driving during St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations in the United States. This weekend in Mississippi MDOT is urging people to be cautious. Not only is drinking and driving a crime, but it can rob families of their loved ones.
According to Don Redman with AAA, another type of driving you will want to steer clear of is drowsy driving.
“When you look at some of the common hours for people falling asleep behind the wheel, it is between about 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. and that is no big surprise. That’s typical people for out that time of night. Usually shift workers fall prone to that, falling asleep behind the wheel. What is interesting is you almost have an identical percentage of drowsy drivers twelve hours later, between 2 and 5 in the afternoon. It’s an archaic of rhythm that we are just naturally tried in the late afternoon, after lunch has settled and what have you,” said Redman.
Drowsy driving accounts for at least 17 percent of all fatal car accidents.
