Surviving the Loss of a Child
Our Lora Beth
Our Lora Beth
We believe that the driver of the van that crashed into Lora and her friends had fallen asleep at the wheel, as he narrowly missed the car ahead of them, and neither braked or made any attempts to correct his vehicle. Further, there was no drugs or alcohol detected in his system.
According to The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, drowsy driving contributes to more than 100,000 accidents per year, causing 40,000 injuries and 1,500 deaths.. They believe this estimate is low due to under-reporting of fatigue as a cause in traffic accidents. Research conducted by AAA attributes sleepiness behind the wheel as a cause of 17 percent of road fatalities in the United States.
As a society we've come to vehement consensus that drunk driving is unacceptable behavior. Yet we continue to tolerate sleepy driving. The same people who wouldn't dream of driving after one drink may very well get behind the wheel when feeling drowsy, or continue to drive once they feel themselves stargint to nod off. They think “I can handle this, I’ll be fine”, and continue to drive. This denial of their impairment puts themselves and others at risk.
