Waking up at 5:30 in the morning to grab a cup of coffee and a quick breakfast is what Jenniscia Whitfield’s morning routine. She is a Winthrop University student that works off campus in her hometown. Holiday season is the hardest time when traveling to work for Jenniscia. Driving two hours from Rock Hill to Cheraw to open up the store at seven in the morning and working past closing time to do inventory for the next day. Not leaving the store until midnight to drive back to Rock Hill just to wake up again to commute back to work.
Many college students like Jenniscia have received a job before they started college and want to maintain that connection during the semester. They sacrifice their time and sleep to complete assignments for class and try to keep their jobs.
Waking up early and sleeping late can cause people to drive drowsy. Jenniscia is being careful not to be another victim of driving drowsy which she knows the consequences too well. Getting the right amount of sleep is crucial for college students to be alert in class and for those who commute back and forth to school.
It is more likely for adults between the ages of 18 to 29 to drive while drowsy. Many students stay up late hours to finish assignments for classes are in risk of having a sleep-related crash. The less sleep you get the greater the risk of falling asleep at the wheel.
Driving drowsy can equate to to having a crash associated with those who drink under the influence of alcohol. A milion such crashes are reported annually that are from drowsy driving.
Winthrop University’s Assistant Chief of Police Ken Scoggins says he stops students at all times of night but only stop a few students over the semester for driving drowsy.
“I stopped a guy in the middle of the intersections and told him to call a friend and get a ride.” says Assistant Chief of Police Ken Scoggins.
In South Carolina, there is no specific law that officers can convict a person who is driving drowsy. Currently there are a few states that have a driving drowsy law such as Arkansas that has “Classifies “fatigued driving” offense under negligent homicide- punishable by a class A misdemeanor- when the driver involved in a fatal accident has been without sleep for 24 consecutive hours or is the a state of sleep after being without sleep for 24 consecutive hours.”
Arkansas law only convicts them if their was a crime caused due to them driving drowsy but Utah just states they will begin installing road signs that warn against drowsy driving and provide information on where drivers can pull over to rest.
Though South Carolina does not have a distinctive law for driving drowsy it is hard for states to actually convict someone of driving drowsy because it is done often by human beings.
“If they break a law while they are driving drowsy it is their fault if they drive off the right side of the road even if they are not under the influence.”says Assistant Chief of Police Ken Scoggins.
A study of sleep patterns of college students in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research identifies the difference sleeping patterns between the weekends and the weekdays. Students woke up later had longer time in bed and sleep time on the weekends. During the week students had shorter time to get accurate sleep from going to sleep at later times than on weekends.
Different techiques are used to stay awake while driving but it might not always work.
“To wake up, I blast my music, nothing boring, and stop by McDonald’s to get something with caffeine in it. I also tap my legs and have to keep my body engaged to stay awake.” says Jenniscia.
“About 42% of nearly 2,000 motorists surveyed they say open a window or sunroof to stay awake while driving; 35% say they pull over to exercise or stretch; 35% listen to loud music; and 25% turn up the air conditioning stated in an article in USA today.
"Drowsy driving is the culprit behind more than 100,000 U.S. accidents each year, and 16.5% of deadly ones," says Mike Martinez, DMEautomotive's chief marketing officer.
“My cousin worked third shifts at his job which made him very tired” says Jenniscia.
One night after a long day at work, Jennicia’s cousin was driving home from work. Her cousin worked the third shift at his job. The late nights with trying to sleep during the day and working late nights really took a toll on his sleeping patterns. One late night, after working a long third shift, he fell asleep at the wheel and tragically ran off a bridge. He died on the scene.
Journal of Safety Research." Fatigued and Drowsy Driving: A Survey of Attitudes, Opinions and Behaviors says sleep-related crashes are more likely to:
- involve a single vehicle running off the roadway, or rear-end and head-on collisions;
- occur on higher-speed roadways;
- involve only the driver as occupant, who is young and male; and,result in serious injuries.
According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2005 Sleep in America poll, 60% of adult drivers – about 168 million people – say they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy in the past year, and more than one-third, (37% or 103 million people), have actually fallen asleep at the wheel! In fact, of those who have nodded off, 13% say they have done so at least once a month. Four percent – approximately eleven million drivers – admit they have had an accident or near accident because they dozed off or were too tired to drive.
Sleep education for college students may help awareness of their own sleep problems and willing to choose activity schedules and sleep habits good for sleep.
“The best way to fix this problem is to stop them before they hurt anybody.”says Assistant Chief of Police Ken Scoggins.
