NATIONAL: Can Drowsy Drivers Sleep in their Vehicles?

Dear SLO Homeless People,
If you have been cited for sleeping in your vehicles, perhaps this is a way to prove your innocence and get out of the citation. Law enforcement has to decide whether they want you driving on the road while dangerously drowsy, or napping on the side of the street your in your vehicle or RV. If you are too tired to drive, then you should be able to sleep in your vehicle to prevent getting prosecuted by law enforcement for drowsy driving - a recognized illegal activity, according to law enforcement.  Read on:

As newly licenses drivers, we were taught to pull off to the side of the road if we were too tired to drive and take a nap - that is, go to sleep. Drowsy drivers are finding themselves in the news, after some high profile criminal prosecutions of drowsy drivers have made the national stage. The most prominent case is that of bus driver Ophadell Williams, who crashed a bus on March 12, 2011, killing 15 passengers; you can read about it by clicking here.

When I have been too tired to continue driving, I have pulled off the road and slept in the back of my truck. Several times, law enforcement has harassed me for just this such activity, despite my protestations about being too tired to drive. I have now clipped out an article from today's San Luis Obispo Tribune Newspaper to keep in my car. In the article, it points out how driving while drowsy is a prosecutable offense, according to current law enforcement.

At the web site, DrowsyDriving.org, there are facts and statistics on the danger of driving while drowsy. I picked this selection from the Drowsy Driving web site to illustrate the benefits of pulling over to take a nap:

Sleep deprivation and fatigue make lapses of attention more likely to occur, and may play a role in behavior that can lead to crashes attributed to other causes.

• According to NSF’s 2000 Sleep in America poll, when they are driving drowsy, 42 percent of those polled said they become stressed, 32 percent get impatient and 12 percent tend to drive faster.
• In the same poll, about one in five drivers (22%) said they pull over to nap when driving drowsy. Older adults are more likely to pull over and nap than younger drivers, who are most likely to drive when drowsy and least likely to pull over and nap.
• People tend to fall asleep more on high-speed, long, boring, rural highways. However, those who live in urban areas are more likely to doze off while driving compared to people in rural or suburban areas (24% vs. 17%).
• Most crashes or near misses occur between 4:00 – 6:00 a.m.; midnight – 2:00 a.m. and 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. are also peak times for crashes to occur. Nearly one-quarter of adults (23%) say they know someone personally who has crashed due to falling asleep at the wheel.
• In NSF’s 1999 Sleep in America poll, 60 percent of parents with children who drive living in the household said they have not discussed the dangers of falling asleep at the wheel. In the 2002 poll, nearly all respondents (96%) agreed that information about driving while drowsy should be included in tests for a driver’s license.