Daylight Savings Time Brings Drowsy Driving

As we remember to turn the clock forward this weekend, you'll be interested to note that aside from bringing an extra hour of daylight, Daylight Savings Time also brings increased fatigued driving that's a major factor in crashes.

The National Road Safety Foundation said that the time change also disrupts our sleep patterns that can cause drowsiness behind the wheel, resulting in more than 100,000 accidents every year, causing about 1,500 deaths, 71,000 injuries and more than $12 billion in losses, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

And if you think blasting your radio or rolling down your windows will help keep you awake, you are simply wrong, because your brain compensates for fatigue by taking its own micro-sleeps for a few seconds. At 65 mph, a few seconds of brain-sleep takes you the length of a football field or worse, into other lanes or oncoming traffic.

All of us at WBSM want you to stay well and safe by not being sleep-deprived this Spring!