AAA: Drowsy Driving Behind Nearly 1 In 5 Fatal Crashes

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — If you are among the millions of sleep-deprived Americans who consistently drive to work less than fully awake, a new study has some very sobering data.

Researchers for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety say up to 41 percent of drivers — that's over four in 10 — admit to having "fallen asleep or nodded off" while driving at some point in their lives, including 11 percent within the past year and just under four percent in the past month.

KNX 1070's Pete Demetriou Reports

The study says that a nationally-representative sample of data taken from 1999 to 2008 shows that an estimated 7 percent of all crashes in which a passenger vehicle was towed, 13 percent of crashes that resulted in a person being admitted to a hospital, and 16 percent of fatal crashes involved a drowsy driver.

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