With many people travelling across the county by road this holiday weekend, Donegal County Council is urging people to take extra care and to think road safety over the Easter holiday period.
Donegal County Council’s Road Safety Officer, Eamonn Brown said, “I would appeal to all road users to be extra careful this holiday weekend. We know the holiday weekends bring added risk for road users so our message is simple, slow down, wear your seat belt and never ever drink and drive. One of the worst holiday weekends in terms of road collisions was experienced back in March last year. I would appeal to everyone to make a concerted effort to ensure this level of tragedy doesn’t visit our County again”.
Nationally this year to date, seventy people have been killed on the Country’s roads- up fourteen on the same period last year. Of those who died so far this year, thirty- three were drivers, eighteen were pedestrians, eleven were passengers, three were motorcyclists, four were cyclists and one was a pillion passenger.
Mr Brown went on to warn drivers of the risk of driver fatigue with more and longer journeys taking place around the holiday period. “Latest research indicates that driver fatigue could be a contributory factor in up to a fifth of driver deaths in Ireland. They also say that driving, when very tired, is as dangerous as driving while over the drink drive limit”.
The critical points at which driver fatigue related collisions happen are between 2am – 6 am and mid afternoon between 2pm – 4 pm when our ‘circadian rhythm’ or body clock is at its lowest point. Males aged 18 to 30 are in the high risk category. If a driver persists in fighting sleep while driving, the impairment level is the same as driving while over the drink drive limit. Eventually a driver will drift in and out of consciousness and experience ‘micro sleeps’ which can last for up to 10 seconds. In this time a driver has no control of the vehicle. Drivers can experience such a micro sleep with their eyes wide open.
“As soon as you realise you are fighting the urge to go to sleep you should stop driving,” advised Mr. Brown. “The best way to cope with this problem is to stop driving, park in a safe place, drink two cups of coffee and then take a fifteen minute nap.”
Caffeine takes between twenty and thirty minutes to enter a person’s system and start working. So, by the time you wake up, the caffeine should have taken effect. Following the nap, stretch your legs and get some fresh air. You should now be fit to drive for approximately another hour. However in cases of extreme tiredness, brought on by sleep deprivation, the only cure for a lack of sleep is sleep.