On Friday, May 24, a driver in Michigan fell asleep while driving on Interstate 94, causing the vehicle to flip over and roll on the road. This brief moment of the accident was unexpectedly captured by the dashcam of another car.
According to the police, the 26-year-old female driver of the SUV was driving on the right lane of I-94 highway around 6:30 am when she fell asleep.
A video aired by Detroit Fox TV station showed a car driving westbound on I-94 highway, passing under an overpass, then moving into the leftmost lane. At the same time, an SUV in the right lane began swerving in an erratic S-shaped manner.
Soon enough, the SUV veered off onto the highway shoulder, drove onto the grassy embankment, and as it descended the grassy slope, the front of the car began to swerve sideways, the left side of the vehicle hanging in the air, starting to roll diagonally, crossing all three lanes of the highway. Throughout the process, the roof of the car touched the ground, creating large sparks.
With a tremendous impact, the car hit the center guardrail, rolling and tumbling multiple times, eventually coming to a stop in the leftmost lane, facing towards the guardrail.
Fortunately, the car behind managed to brake swiftly and in time to avoid colliding with the SUV involved in the accident. Meanwhile, during the entire accident, the car narrowly missed the rear of a pickup truck but did not hit any other moving vehicles.
Reports from Detroit Fox 2 station indicated that the accident resulted in a passenger being thrown out of the vehicle while the female driver was apparently unconscious, hanging outside the driver’s side window.
The police stated that the passenger sustained minor injuries, but the driver was seriously injured and has been transported to the hospital.
The authorities closed down Interstate 94 for several hours to clear the accident scene but later reopened it.
A study sponsored by the Australian Automobile Association released in 2021 revealed that approximately 20% of accidents are caused by fatigue. Lack of sleep significantly impairs reaction time, judgment, and concentration, similar to the effects of drunk driving.
The research found that individuals who had less than 4 to 5 hours of sleep in the past 24 hours were nearly twice as likely to be involved in accidents compared to others. This risk is equivalent to that of driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.05%.