Asleep at the Wheel
Sometimes you just can't help it, you have somewhere to go but you are dead tired. How many people actually decide to stay home and get some rest instead of climbing in the car? How many times have you been driving home late after a party and blasted music just to stay awake? If you live in New Jersey, you might want to think twice about these things.
New Jersey is the first state to specifically list going without sleep as a crime, according to Darrel Drobnich, a legislative analyst for the foundation. Similar bills are pending in New York and have been discussed by lawmakers in Washington state.
-New Jersey Criminalizes Driving While Tired By JOHN P. McALPIN, AP
This new legislation is known as "Maggie's Law." The story behind this law began in 1997, when 20 year-old college student Maggie McDonnell was killed when a driver crossed three lanes of highway traffic and hit her car head on. The driver admitted he had been awake for 30 hours before the accident, and had also been using drugs. When the case went to trial, the jury deadlocked 9 to 3 for conviction. In the second trial, the defense argued there was no law in New Jersey against falling asleep at the wheel, and therefore, the driver did nothing wrong. The judge did not allow the jury to consider the driver's sleep deprivation; he received a suspended jail sentence and a $200 fine.
The New Jersey State Senate passed the bill, known as "Maggie's Law", on June 23, 2003. The law establishes fatigued driving as recklessness under the existing vehicular homicide statute (N.J.S.2C:11-5). This legislation overwhelming passed both chambers of the state legislature and represents the first bill in the nation to specifically address the issue of driving while fatigued. The bill defines "fatigue" as being without sleep for a period in excess of 24 consecutive hours.
According to NSF polls, more than one-half of America's drivers - over 100 million people - admit to driving while drowsy, and nearly two out of five, or 32 million people, say they actually fell asleep at the wheel. Maggie's Law can help reduce those ominous statistics, keep drowsy drivers off the road, and save lives.
-The National Sleep Foundation.
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12 Comments
I do this allllllllll the time... almost every weekend... i'm waking up in another lane.. or right in front of a tree.. but HOW are they going to prove i was up that long..?!?! how.. all i have to say is.. ehh i slept a good amount of time.. i just fell alseep anyway. i mean.. come onn
lately...you are being less funny. and more ironic. i mean. who cares you slept 2 hours while driving. i want to see more nekid in the woods jokes.
sorry man. i'm leaving the funny business to you !
I do this a lot..not staying awake for 24 hours though. I tend to fall asleep with just being awake for 12 hours.
I fell asleep one time at the wheel, cept when my head went forward, i nailed my forhead on the stick shift and it woke up... cept, anyone behind me probably thought i was a jake in the box, the way my head shot up all of sudden... lol
that must have been entertaining for the people behind you. what, seeing the world's first ever jake in the box, and all.
man, i'm surprised ny wasn't the first state.....they're so strict with everything else
I actually fell asleep 3 times on the way to work yesterday morning, and 4 times this morning. I'd better be careful, 'cause I sure don't want to end up hurting anyone . . .
Thank you for adding the "..." for tradition's sake.
no problem - I'm glad that I could make your evening. But seriously, how would they even know that you've been up for more than 24 hours? If I don't get my 9 hours of sleep I'm useless in the morning. At night, I'm usually a-ok.
Yeah seriously, less then 7 hours of sleep for me might as well be going without sleep for 24 hours. Do they have a magical gauge?
i think i have slow term narcolepcy... i fall asleep suddenly at the wheel too. but like i said, it takes a while. and that's only after i've been up for 18 hours.