Saint Louis Missouri Personal Injury Blog

A recently published study on the professions that see the most sleep deprivation has ranked transportation and material moving among the worst four. This may not be a surprise to long-haul truck drivers in Missouri, most of whom know how widespread and how dangerous it is to drive drowsy.

Overall, the study found that 35.6% of all respondents (composed of 150,000 working adults in the U.S.) claimed to get less than seven hours of sleep in 2018. In 2010, that percentage was 30.9%. Between those two years, truckers saw an increase from 32% to 41%.

According to statistics gathered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 30 people in the United States die every day from traffic accidents caused by drunk driving. While these types of incidents have dropped dramatically in the past 30 years, they still account for more than 10,000 deaths per year and more than $44 billion in annual damages. For pedestrians, drivers and passengers on the road in Missouri and other states, alcohol intoxication remains a serious threat.

As blood alcohol concentration rises, it has increasingly negative effects on a driver. At .02, there is some decline in visual functions and loss of ability to perform two tasks at once. At .05, there is reduced coordination and the reduced ability to track moving objects. At the legal limit of .08, there is impaired concentration, speed control, information processing capability and perception. Impairment continues to get worse as BAC increases beyond this point.

While many in Missouri are excited about the potential for self-driving vehicles to eliminate human error and make the roads safer, others are concerned about the potential downsides of new vehicle technologies. For example, in one crash involving a Tesla vehicle with Autopilot engaged, the car slammed into a police car and fire truck parked with lights running and blocking an upcoming lane. Of course, Tesla has warned against relying on Autopilot for autonomous driving, saying that the feature is currently intended to help improve driver safety, not replace the role of a human driver.

Nevertheless, the crash represents a serious technical concern for scientists and manufacturers involved in developing self-driving technologies. When the car hit the back of the fire truck, no one was injured. However, federal officials and researchers noted that the problem is not limited to Tesla's system. Various autonomous driving systems have had difficulties recognizing parked vehicles ahead, especially in a place where they may not be expected to be. The software is far better at clearly and accurately recognizing moving vehicles ahead and obstacles centered in the lane.

For every year between 2006 and 2016, the number of drunk driving fatalities exceeded 10,000. Though the number has declined by a third over the past three decades, there is no question that drunk driving continues to be an epidemic. Missouri residents should know that 30 people in this country die every day in drunk driving crashes according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In 2017, the latest year for which NHTSA has complete data, there were 10,874 deaths resulting from drunk driving accidents. However, it turns out that motorcyclists, not drivers, see the highest rate of deadly drunk driving crashes. Of the 4,885 motorcyclists killed in 2017, 1,357 or 28% were discovered to be intoxicated. Motorcyclists in their 40s were the most likely to be found intoxicated.