A 3-minute lesson from the Florida course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
Being tired or medicated can impair you as badly as alcohol. Drowsy driving can be just as dangerous as drunk driving. Driving impaired by drugs, even legal ones, carries the same penalties as alcohol-impaired driving.
Fatigue can:
Slow your thought processes and reaction time
Affect your judgment and vision
Impair your senses and abilities
Cause micro-sleeping ("nodding off") or falling completely asleep
Many prescription drugs and over-the-counter allergy and cold medicines can affect your driving. Check the label for warnings, and ask your doctor or pharmacist if you're unsure.
Don't combine alcohol and drugs. Mixing them often multiplies the effects: one drink with an allergy or cold medicine can have the same effect as several drinks.
Illegal drugs and controlled substances such as marijuana affect reflexes, judgment and alertness. They can give a false sense of alertness and confidence, or make you drowsy and slow to react.
You took a cold medicine that says 'may cause drowsiness,' and a friend offers you one beer before you drive home. Refuse it. Together they can hit you like several drinks, and you could face the same penalties as a drunk driver.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
What are the two main causes of drowsy driving listed in the handbook?
Long commutes and loud music
Lack of quality/quantity of sleep and driving when you'd normally be asleep
Hunger and dehydration
Bad weather and heavy traffic
Answer: Lack of quality/quantity of sleep and driving when you'd normally be asleep
The two main causes of drowsy driving are lack of quality/quantity sleep and driving at times you'd normally be sleeping.