What effect does fatigue usually have on drivers?

Fatigue usually impairs your reaction ability and makes you less attentive. This happens long before you are so tired that you fall asleep behind the steering wheel.

There are many warning signs that all mean you are too tired to drive. These are usually the first:

• You feel sluggish and indifferent.
• Your thinking becomes slow and unfocused.
• Your course-keeping ability deteriorates.
• You yawn deeper and more often.
• Your mouth becomes dry.
• You feel cold.

It is important to recognize and listen to your body's signs of fatigue. Never driver if you are too tired!

If you experience any of the following, you are really tired and about to fall asleep:

• Your eyelids feel heavy.
• Your neck muscles relax.
• You see double.
• You feel disoriented.
• You hallucinate and start imagining things.
• You feel totally absent without sleeping.
• Your eyelids close involuntarily.
• Your head starts to fall forward.

Alcohol makes us both tired and less attentive to signs of fatigue. Therefore, it is common that fatigue-based accidents are caused by drunk drivers.