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Driving after 5 hours of sleep is akin to drunken driving - study

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<b> DANGER ON OUR ROADS: </b> Motorists are urged not to drive after too little sleep as it is comparable to drinking and driving according to a study. <i> Image: Shutterstock </i>
<b> DANGER ON OUR ROADS: </b> Motorists are urged not to drive after too little sleep as it is comparable to drinking and driving according to a study. <i> Image: Shutterstock </i>

Cape Town - Here's some important information before you embark on a holiday road trip, make sure you rest up because according to a recent report, the risk of you being involved in a car accident spikes with every hour of lost sleep.

According to Bianca de Beer, spokesperson for Dialdirect Insurance: "The report released this month by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety states that the less sleep the person behind the wheel gets, the higher the accident rate. For example, motorists in the study who got only four or five hours of sleep had four times the accident rate - similar to what's seen amongst drunk drivers.”

The study also found that drivers who caused the accident were more than 10 times as likely to have slept for less than four hours, and that drivers who slept even as little as one hour less than the amount they would normally sleep during a 24 hour period, had significantly increased accident rates.

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“Previous research by the AAA Foundation found that about 20% of fatal accidents in the US involve a drowsy driver. In South Africa, statistics are just as severe.  The bottom line is that one in five fatal accidents could be avoided when people get sufficient rest,” says de Beer. 

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