Tired Driver Smashes Car, Walks Away: Dangers Of Driving Drowsy

MISSION VIEJO, CA — What happens when you fall asleep at the wheel? Nothing good, especially for this Mission Viejo driver. Early Tuesday morning, around 3 a.m., the driver of this vehicle drifted onto the center median at Marguerite and Vista del Lago, Orange County Sheriff's Department Mission Viejo Police Services officers reported.

The driver veered off the road and smashed into a sign, the wooden post of which skewered her windshield. According to arriving officers, this crash could have been much worse.

"Although the accident looks horrific, she walked away uninjured," they said over social media. "She was not intoxicated, just a tired driver."

Driving tired may have deadly consequences, according to the National Safety Council and the American Sleep Foundation.

Approximately half of U.S. adult drivers admit to consistently getting behind the wheel while feeling drowsy, a spokesperson for the American Sleep Foundation said. In a recent report, nearly 20% of Americans admitted to falling asleep behind the wheel at some point in the past year, and over 40% admitted that they've falling asleep at the wheel at least once in their driving careers.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that even more drivers fall asleep at the wheel annually than are reported by police by nearly 350 percent. Their study estimated that 328,000 drowsy driving crashes occur annually. Of those, 109,000 drowsy driving crashes resulted in an injury and about 6,400 were fatal.

How can you tell if you are too tired to drive? Below are signs and symptoms of drowsy driving, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine:

• Frequent yawning or difficulty keeping your eyes open
• "Nodding off" or having trouble keeping your head up
• Inability to remember driving the last few miles
• Missing road signs or turns
• Difficulty maintaining your speed
• Drifting out of your lane

Before driving drowsy, Mission Viejo Police Services officers had this social media plea: "Please consider other options rather than chancing your safety and others."

Mission Viejo Police Services photo