Yes, everyone gets tired once in a while, but far too often, drivers are putting themselves and others at risk by getting behind the wheel without the sleep they need.
So it should come as no surprise, then, that car crashes related to drowsy driving results in around 8,000 deaths in the U.S each year, which is almost as many deaths as caused by drunk driving. And yet, despite the dangers, over 60% of American adults say they’ve driven while drowsy within the past year.
To shine a spotlight on the dangers of drowsy driving, Toyota, Uber and online news portal, The Huffington Post in the US are teaming up to provide discounted Uber rides to college students across the country in April.
HuffPost’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, Arianna Huffington, will be touring college campuses to educate students on the importance of sleep and promote her newest book, The Sleep Revolution. At each college Huffington visits, students will be eligible for a $15 discount on one Uber ride to, or from campus, courtesy of Toyota. The discount will be valid for five days from the date of the book tour stop.
Students will receive an email or push notification from their Uber app with a promo code and a message from Toyota that reads, in part, “Nice work studying late. Now Toyota would like to help you get home safely.”
Why are they targeting students? According to a study published in the journal Nature and Science of Sleep, college students have earned a reputation for brushing off sleep — to socialize or to study — and for wearing their sleeplessness as a badge of honour. Indeed, a full 70% of them aren’t getting enough sleep.
In the long run, sleep deprivation can seriously impair the brain and body. In the near term, sleep loss affects the brain in much the same way alcohol does, research has found. Staying awake for 19 hours can have the same effect as knocking back a couple of drinks, and pulling an all-nighter is equivalent to having a blood alcohol level of 0.1 percent, which is legally intoxicated.
Toyota, Uber and HuffPost hope that by taking advantage of discounted Uber rides, college students will ‘wake-up’ to the dangers of drowsy driving and the importance of a good night’s sleep.
Source: Huffingtonpost
