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