How Does Impairment
Impact Driving Safety?

Mental impairment can be caused by many factors, which include, but are not limited to fatigue, low blood sugar (generally resulting from diabetes), drugs, both prescription, legal and otherwise, slow rates of stimulus-reaction performance, and the like.

Because driving a vehicle safely depends upon rapid response to ever-changing and often unexpected changes in the driving environment, it is absolutely necessary that drivers are always at the top of their game.  Conversely, sufficient mental impairment, whatever the reason, greatly compromises the safety of the driver and others who share the road.

Experts from the Medical and Toxicological Information organization have learned that low blood sugar is frequently seen in connection with driving error that results in accidents that involve personal and property damages.  Further, the behavior of those suffering from low blood sugar is often the subject of false and very expensive DUI arrests which are not associated with alcohol or other drugs.  While data regarding the actual number of vehicle crashes and false DUI arrests are yet unavailable, careful studies of alcohol-related crashes are well-documented.  While safety is certainly a very important factor, the DUI industry supplies many millions of dollars each year to police agencies and lawyers.  Out of the 12,000 alcohol-related deaths on the roads each year, 71% of them are from drivers with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 and above.

Fatigue affects a driver's concentration and reaction time much like alcohol; sleepiness is often overlooked as a major contributor to vehicle crashes. The National Sleep Foundation's 2009 Sleep in America poll shows that 1% or as many as 1.9 million drivers have had a car crash or a near miss due to drowsiness in the past year. Even more surprising, 54% of drivers (105 million) have driven while drowsy at least once in the past year, and 28% (54 million) do so at least once per month.

"People underestimate how tired they are and think that they can stay awake by sheer force of will," said Thomas Balkin, Ph.D., Chairman of the National Sleep Foundation. "This is a risky misconception. Would there be 1.9 million fatigue-related crashes or near misses if people were good at assessing their own ability to drive when fatigued?"

"The problem," says Balkin, "is that although we are pretty good at recognizing when we feel sleepy, we do not recognize the process of actually falling asleep as it is happening. The process robs us of both self-awareness and awareness of our environment. All it takes is a moment of reduced awareness to cause a crash."

Studies show that being awake for more than 20 hours results in an impairment equal to a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08%, the legal limit in all states. Like alcohol, fatigue slows reaction time, decreases awareness and impairs judgment. But unlike an fully-awake driver impaired by alcohol, a sleeping driver is unable to take any action to avoid a crash.

SafeKey is a Sophisticated Electronic System that rapidly and 
accurately checks a driver’s reaction time.

The SafeKey is a unique ignition key immobilizer that prevents a vehicle engine from starting if the driver is unfit to drive safely. It is fully independent of other driver analysis methods – breath or otherwise. It analyzes the only thing that counts: how quickly a driver can react to a stimulus – braking, swerving, avoiding pedestrians and the like. It’s well-known that many drugs, including alcohol, significantly increase the time a person requires to react to a change in circumstance such as a red light or obstruction in the road.