state and federal legislation regarding drowsy driving and fall-asleep crashes wake up michigan!...
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State and Federal Legislation Regarding Drowsy Driving and Fall-Asleep Crashes
Wake Up Michigan! Symposium
Darrel Drobnich
Chief Program Officer – Policy, Education & Research
National Sleep Foundation
1522 K Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005
www.sleepfoundation.org
Federal Legislation
Hours of service rules for commercial drivers Currently in federal court
National Drowsy Driving Act of 2003 TEA 21 Reauthorization
Encourages states to add fatigue programs to traffic safety efforts funded by 402 Program (gas taxes)
rest areas, rumble strips
State Legislation
Fatigue vs. Alcohol
15 hours sustained wakefulness produces performance impairment = .05% BAC
24 hours = .10% BAC (Dawson & Reid, 1997; Williamson & Feyer, 2000).
People with mild to moderate untreated sleep apnea performed worse than those with a 0.06% BAC (Powell, 1999)
On 4 hours sleep, 1 beer can have the impact of a six-pack (Roehrs et al., 1994)
Maggie McDonnell
1977 - 1997
Maggie’s Law
1. N.J.S.2C:11-5 is amended to read as follows: 2C:11-5. Death by auto or vessel. a. Criminal homicide constitutes vehicular homicide
when it is caused by driving a vehicle or vessel recklessly.
For the purposes of this section, driving a vehicle or
vessel while knowingly fatigued shall constitute recklessness. “Fatigued” as used in this section means having been without sleep for a period in excess of 24 consecutive hours
Maggie’s Law applied in Dennis Twp. road fatality
By TRUDI GILFILLIAN Staff Writer
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE - A Cape May County vehicular-homicide case may have been the first to make use of Maggie's Law, named for a young Gloucester County woman who died when a tired driver struck her car.
Last week, Lower Township resident Scott Robb pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide after admitting he had gone 24 hours or more without sleep when his minivan swerved into another lane striking a minivan driven by Thomas Herring Jr. on Sept. 25, 2004. Herring, of Delaware, died.
Robb will be sentenced to five years in state prison.
Assistant Prosecutor Rob Johnson said he prosecuted Robb using Maggie's Law, which specifically defines being without sleep for 24 consecutive hours as recklessness in cases of vehicular homicide, a second-degree crime punishable by as many as 10 years in prison.
- PressofAtlanticcity.com
Nobel Prize-Winning Physicist Gets 2 Years for Manslaughter
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) -- A Nobel Prize-winning physicist from Florida State University will spend two years in prison. Seventy-four-year-old John Schrieffer was sentenced in Santa Maria, California for a 2004 car crash that killed a man and injured seven people.
Authorities say Schrieffer was driving more than 100 miles per hour when he crashed his Mercedes-Benz into a Toyota van. He pleaded no contest July 25th to felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.
Defense attorneys say their client fell asleep at the wheel. At the time of the crash, Schrieffer was driving on a suspended license.
Schrieffer has been chief scientist at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University since 1992.
1998 NSF Survey of States
Six states still did not have fatigue codes: Al, AR, DE, MA, MO, WI – Now 1 (MASS)
Most states had separate codes for both “fatigue” and “fell asleep”
Only two states (AL, MS) said that they would not charge a drowsy driver for causing a crash
Only Alabama said that they would not charge a drowsy driver for causing a fatality
New State Legislation
Illinois – SB104 – adds “fatigue” to reckless driving in vehicular homicide statue)
Kentucky – HB 150 – adds “fatigue” to reckless driving in vehicular homicide statue)
Michigan – HB4332 -- Adds a definition of fatigue (24 hrs) to reckless driving statute.)
New State Legislation
New Jersey AB2265 – Recording driver distraction, including fatigue, on
accident forms. SB1851 – Same as House bill AJR86 – Creates commission to study rest areas for
commercial drivers Oregon
HB3031 – Creates offense of drowsy driving; max of 5 years imprisionment, $125,000 fine or both.
Tennessee SB0071 – Adds drowsy driving to vehicular homicide statute
New State Legislation
New York A00970 – Screening for OSA in CMV drivers A01234 – Drowsy driving a misdemeanor; felony for
vehicular homicide A02332 – Death from drowsy driving a
misdemeanor A4143 – Adds fatigue to statues for vehicular
assault and vehicular manslaughter S2488 – Same as A4143
Massachusetts – SB730 – Creates special commission for drowsy driving More comprehensive bill stalled
Massachusetts – Rob’s Law: The Drowsy Driving Act of 2005
First introduced by State Senator Richard Moore in 2005
Created in memory of Major Robert Raneri, U.S. Army Reserve, who was killed by an admitted drowsy driver.
Special Commission provision incorporated into a separate young operators law that passed
Reintroduced as S No. 2072
Educational/Training Provisions
Includes sleep issues in standard and school bus driver’s license examinations
Adds expert on sleep disorders to DMV’s medical advisory board
Creates training for police in recognition of sleep deprivation
Requires reporting/collection of data on drowsy driving accidents
Enforcement Provisions
Includes drowsy driving as a factor in determining habitual traffic offenders
Establishes crime of sleeping while driving Establishes motor vehicle homicide when
fatality results from driver sleeping Allows police to place a person incapacitated
by sleep deprivation into “protective custody” overnight
“Protective Custody”
DMV will establish “reasonable tests” to be used in determining whether a person is incapacitated by sleep deprivation
No one shall be placed in protective custody shall be considered to have been arrested or charged with a crime
Special Commission
Established to recommend additional penalties, means to measure drivers impaired by lack of sleep, and training programs for drivers and law enforcement personnel.
5 members appointed by the House, 5 members appointed by the Senate, 5 members appointed by Governor.– Governor’s appointees must include 3 medical or academic
sleep deprivation experts; 1 must be a trial lawyer association rep; 1 must be a victims rep.
Report due December 1, 2007.
Summary
There is growing legislative interest in addressing drowsy driving on the state and federal level.
At this time legislation is very narrow in perspective, but this is changing.
Education of law enforcement, the judiciary, and policy makers is important in order to use existing laws to the extent necessary and to craft new legislation that addresses education, enforcement and engineering.
For More Information
www.sleepfoundation.orgwww.drowsydriving.orgwww.sleepforkids.org