Bedford Driving Lessons

Driving for more than three hours without a break at night is the equivalent of being drunk behind the wheel, claims a new study. Researchers found driver tiredness after a few hours has the same effect as being over the drink-driving limit. Even two hours of motorway driving in the dark can affect performance so severely it is the same as having a couple drinks. Now experts who carried out the research want governments to impose a maximum two-hour limit on continuous night-time driving in a bid to curb accidents and death rates. It is estimated that one-fifth of all traffic accidents are due to sleepiness behind the wheel. One in three motorists admits to nodding off while driving at night. A study last year by experts at Cardiff University called for newly qualified drivers to be banned from the roads at night, a move that could save 200 lives a year in the UK and result in 1,700 fewer serious injuries. Similar schemes already exist in New Zealand, Australia and the US. Unlike alcohol, police have no way of measuring whether a driver is affected by fatigue. More