On a cool Saturday night last fall The Texas Aggies began celebrating their win against the Baylor Bears in a rival football game. Students from both campuses came together for the traditional post-game parties. However the parties and celebrations came to a devastating halt when 6 students were killed by a driver who had fallen asleep and hit them on the highway. The driver was not drunk, nor was he speeding, he just fell asleep. USA Today, explains in "Over Work, Lack Of Sleep Cause Car Crashes," how an estimated "100,00 highway accidents occur each year" as a result of drivers falling asleep at the wheel. Accidents such as the A&M tragedy can be prevented. Similar highway accidents occur each year caused by several factors. How safe are the highways we drive on everyday? As a driver am I fully aware of how safe I am on the highway, or do I just assume that I am protected based on what I hear on the news or read in the newspaper? In order to fully understand the concept of highway safety we must examine the various causes of automobile accidents and how to prevent them.

Overtime technology has improved tremendously. Transportation is an example of one major technol

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4 October 2000 .

"Alcohol." National Highway Transportation Safety Association 1997. 25 September 2000 .

Highway accidents are caused by several factors. A major cause of highway accidents is due to the driver's awareness. Many things can cause a driver to not be fully aware of the driving environment. Of these thing alcohol is the leading cause of highway accidents. "Impaired Driving" tells how every 33 minutes there is an alcohol related crash fatality. Approximately "3 out of every ten" adults will be involved in an alcohol related traffic crash sometime in their life. Alcohol related crashes cost society more than $45 billion a year. Just one alcohol-related crash is "estimated to cost approximately $950,000." NHTSA estimates that alcohol was involved in 38.5 percent of fatal crashes in one year alone. In "Alcohol" the author gives intoxication rates for drivers in fatal crashes. "27.9 percent for motorcycles, 20.2 percent for light trucks, 18.2 percent for passenger cars, and 1.1 percent for large trucks" were the estimated percent of intoxicated drivers involved in a fatal crash. Not only alcohol, but also even lack of sleep can cause a driver to be impaired. As in the story of the 6 college students killed in College Station, a driver who falls asleep is as dangerous as a driver who is intoxicated. Baylor Police Chief Jim Doak states in "Fatigue A Threat To Highway Safety", by John Drake, that falling asleep behind the wheel is a common occurrence. He goes on to say that when driving late at night on a dark road monotony sets in and drivers find themselves wondering " where they have been the last ten miles." Most drivers do not realize that they are tired until they begin driving. There is an attitude by most drivers that they can keep going and that they do not need rest. Doak goes on to say that ways to prevent driving while the person is tired are to "pull over and stop and buy a coke, Dr.Pepper, have a cup of coffee, and do whatever the body tells you." Many times drivers know they should pull over or switch drivers. The body can tell the driver that it is tired. It is up to the driver, however to actually do what is safest. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has worked in lowering the number of sleep related accidents on the highways by creating "rumble strips" on the sides of most highway lanes. These rumble strips do just what they say, they make a loud rumble noise that will hopefully wake the driver up before an accident happens. Jayne O'Donnell of USA Today, says in "Device To Rouse Drowsy Drivers," these rumble strips can reduce crashes by up to 50 percent when their tires go over them. Even though most highways have these rumble strips, few secondary roads have them. In order to prevent even more crashes the NHSTA is working on installing these strips on secondary roads, which have been, reported to have more crashes per year. Hopefully, in the years to come all roads will be paved with these protective, and life saving rumble strips.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3209
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)