Young drivers insurance news
09/09/2010
Tired driving worry
Tired younger drivers could be risking their young drivers insurance by getting behind the wheel when they feel weary and in need of sleep.
Nearly three-quarters of drivers (74%) confess to driving their cars when they are most acutely feeling the effects of long days and short sleeps. It is perhaps indicative of the pressures facing motorists, including the increasing cost of young drivers' insurance premiums, that just six years ago only 46% admitted to driving while tired.
A spokesperson from road safety charity Brake comments, "It is terrifying how complacent drivers are about tiredness at the wheel. It only takes a couple of seconds of sleep to cause a fatal crash, yet millions of drivers are regularly getting behind the wheel while tired, and most don't know how to deal with sleepiness on a long journey.
"We all know when we're feeling sleepy - we know what the warning signs are. When we're driving we must listen to these signs without delay. Thinking that we can fight off sleep, especially using unproven methods like opening the window, is a mistake that could cost your life, or someone else's."
Alarmingly, as many as one in five fatal accidents is caused by a tired driver. It is also worrying that many drivers continue to try and employ tactics such as opening a window while driving or playing a CD in order to try and stay awake rather than having short rest breaks.
However, it is not only young driver insurance holders who fail to follow safe practice, other car insurance policy holders are just as likely to drive while tired.
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