This Week's Sleep News: MAY SPOTLIGHT: DROWSY DRIVING

SPOTLIGHT: SLEEP HEALTH AND PUBLIC SAFETY

The CDC now defines insufficient sleep (before obesity) as the Number One public health crisis in the US.

Please get your sleep. Your life and the lives of everyone else around you depends on it.

This week's links were published or updated through 5.12.16.

DROWSY DRIVING SPOTLIGHT || All of these reports are of people who were either asleep at the wheel or too drowsy to operate a vehicle safely; substance use is not suspected as the cause for these collisions

At least 34 drowsy-driving related accidents

have happened over the last 26 days

in 19 states and 6 countries

April 17 || Sammamish, WA || Driver found asleep at the wheel of a running vehicle sitting at a security gate
April 29 || San Luis Obispo, CA || Man crosses several lanes of traffic to plunge into the Cuesta Grade ravine
April 30 || Baltimore, MD || Spinal-cord-injury victim is thrown from car after it's struck by a drowsy driver
April 30 || Kearney, NE || Driver veers off road, strikes and kills man mowing the grass on the shoulder of the highway
April 30 || King City, CA || Teenaged driver dies after being ejected from van during rollover crash after falling asleep
May 2 || Adelaide, Australia || A truck towing an excavator rolls over and blocks traffic; the excavator is damaged
May 2 || Conway, SC || Ambulance medic hits a concrete barrier with another medic and patient inside
May 2 || Farmington, ME || Tractor-trailer crashes through guardrail, ties up traffic on Maine Turnpike for 10 hours
May 2 || Suffield, CT || Motorist strikes a utility pole, causing the car to roll over
May 3|| West Deptford Township, NJ || Fuel tanker truck overturns into a tidal basin as driver avoids an oncoming car whose driver has fallen asleep
May 4 || Katraj-Dehu Road Bypass, India || 2 separate sleep-driving related accidents that took place on this stretch of highway led to 2 fatalities
May 4 || Morgan County, CO || Women misses curve in road, enters ditch, strikes curve caution sign, launches airborne nearly 90 feet, lands front end first and rolls once
May 4 || Tulsa, OK || Teen driver sailed minivan more than 90 feet beyond the center median before landing on the opposite side of the highway
May 5 || Boston, MA || Construction worker crashes into empty school bus, backs up traffic on I-93 for almost 20 miles (video)
May 5 || Elk River, MN|| Sleepy driver causes 3-car chain of rear-end accidents
May 5 || Shropshire, UK || Farmers suspect drowsy driver in hit-and-run accident which damaged their stone wall
May 6 || Chachoengsao, Thailand || A loaded fuel tanker truck collides with a container truck, exploding into flames that overcome both vehicles
May 6 || Interstate 77 near Charlotte, NC || Trucker, unable to find a legal place to sleep, crashes into concrete barrier, dumping fuel and thousands of pounds of potatoes, starting a fire
May 6 || Laramie, WY || Semi truck hauling millions of honeybees veers off road and crashes, releasing the insects
May 6 || Nashville, TN || FedEx truck is recorded by cell phone causing 8-car pileup in heavy daytime traffic after veering out of its lane and rear-ended a truck
May 6 || Newcastle, WY || Teenaged motorist crosses center lane, collides with oncoming Jeep
May 7 || Lynchburg, VA || Driver hits utility poll, knocks out power for 800 residents
May 8 || Bodega Bay, CA || Young driver veers into oncoming lane, strikes SUV carrying 6 passengers; elderly passenger sustains major injuries
May 8|| Leominster, MA || Two men in their early 20s were hospitalized after their car rolled over on an on-ramp, ejecting the driver and trapping the passenger
May 8 || Traverse City, MI || Man misses curve, drives into stand of pine trees
May 8 || Udon Thani, Thailand || Driver of chartered van escorting Buddhist pilgrims crashes into median trip, killing 3 and injuring 3 others
May 8 || Westwood, MA || Man abandons car after driving it into water-filled ditch
May 9 || Chonburi, Thailand || A 4-car collision results in 5 hospitalizations; man and wife in pickup struck by drowsy driver potentially saved by ten large dolls that buffered them during the crash
May 9 || Cumming, GA || Man drives off the road, rolls truck three times, then breaks through guardrail bridge into lake
May 9|| Herne Hill, Australia || Dashcam shows exact moment when this driver falls asleep at the wheel
May 9 || Siem Reap, Cambodia || Minivan driver kills 3 and injures 5 in head-on collision with SUV
May 10 || Brush Valley Township, IN || Teenaged driver drives off road, hits tree, is hospitalized
May 11 || Kokomo, IN || Man drives off the read, catches air, hits a tree
May 11 || Laporte County, IN || Driver hits guardrail, leaves the road, crashes backward into gas station sign, knocks out power