Reckless Driving Research Paper

Reckless Driving One of the more serious issues that is becoming more and more of a bigger problem in the South Coast today is reckless driving. What reckless driving is is driving in a way that puts people and property in harm's way. A reckless driving offense can be tacked onto or used in lieu of other offenses like speeding. Some of the most common types of reckless driving are; driving under the influence, drowsy driving, and phone usage while driving. Reckless driving is one cause of death in the area. On average there are over 6 million car accidents in the United States every year and more than 3 million people are injured due to car accidents; 2 million of these injuries are permanent. There are over 40,000 deaths due to car accidents every year. “If a new disease started killing Americans at the rate that vehicles do the government would instantly mobilize, and we’d do whatever it took to conquer the disease.” (Baker, Susan) If the government would do this if it was a disease why don’t they take more action for reckless driving? Being a fatigued driver or more commonly known a drowsy driver is just as dangerous as someone who has had too many beers. Drowsy driving is the operation of a motor vehicle while being cognitively impaired by a lack of sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation’s 2005 Sleep in America poll, “60% of adult drivers (about 168 million people) say they have driven a vehicle while feeling drowsy in the past year, and more than one-third, (37% or 103 million people), have actually fallen asleep at the wheel!.” The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that “100,000 police-reported crashes are the direct result of driver fatigue each year. This results in an estimated 1,550 deaths, 71,000 injuries, and $12.5 billion in monetary losses.” The hardest part about cracking down on drowsy drivers is that there is no test to determine sleepiness as there is for intoxication. Sleep related crashes are most common in

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