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Tiredness 'as dangerous as drink-driving'
New research has confirmed the assumption that a tired driver is just as dangerous behind the wheel as a drunken one.
Researchers at the road rescue company Britannia Rescue asked three experienced motorists to take part in a number of tests, which were then compared to results of analysis carried out on drivers who were over the legal drink-driving limit.
The drivers were kept awake over a 24 hour period while being tested in a driving simulator. Researchers found that the motorists' speech became slurred and that each handled the 'car' with acute caution, in a similar manner to driving when drunk.
One of the volunteers, call-centre worker Sue Jackson, committed a series of errors, including driving on the pavement, which could have been dangerous if the situation had been real.
"Taking her IQ scores, we see a massive decline in thinking skills from a perfectly respectable nine points out of 12 at 5pm, to just two out of 12 at 8am," said one psychologist working on the experiment, Dr David Lewis.
"It was not that she had become less intelligent, but simply a reflection of an exhausted brain at the point of shutting down," he added.
Around 300 people in the UK die each year in accidents involving drivers who have fallen asleep at the wheel, highlighting the need for adequate car insurance.
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