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State & Federal Legislation on Drowsy Driving: Wake Up Michigan!

This symposium discusses state and federal legislation regarding drowsy driving and fall-asleep crashes. It covers topics such as hours of service rules, national drowsy driving acts, fatigue programs, and more.

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State & Federal Legislation on Drowsy Driving: Wake Up Michigan!

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  1. State and Federal Legislation Regarding Drowsy Driving and Fall-Asleep CrashesWake 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

  2. 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

  3. State Legislation

  4. 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)

  5. Maggie McDonnell 1977 - 1997

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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.

  9. 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

  10. 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.)

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. 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

  14. 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

  15. 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

  16. “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

  17. 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.

  18. 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.

  19. For More Information www.sleepfoundation.org www.drowsydriving.org www.sleepforkids.org

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