If your teen is tired, you may want to discourage him or her from walking home. A new study shows that sleep-deprived teenagers are more likely to get hit by vehicles when crossing the street. This discovery was made by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The Youth Safety Lab at this university conducted a trial including 55 teenagers aged 14 and 15. The teens were tested for their ability to cross the street safely in a virtual intersection so as to prevent actual injury.

Some teens had their sleep restricted to only 4 hours a night. This is half of the recommended amount of sleep for a growing teenager. Other teenagers were permitted to sleep 8.5 hours per night. Those who only got 4 hours of sleep took more time before they started crossing the street. The teenagers who had less sleep also crossed with less time before contact with vehicles and had more close calls than those who slept for a full eight hours.

Sleep-deprived teens in the study averaged about 2.2 close falls or hits by vehicles with 25 simulated street crossings. Those who had an adequate amount of sleep only had about 1.42 close calls or hits. These findings were published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The study's author concluded that teens will be much safer when walking on the streets if they have had enough sleep to gather awareness of their surroundings. Those that fail to take note of their surroundings because of exhaustion are often in danger.

The study also proved that adolescents can be put at a higher risk after only one night of inadequate sleep. An estimated 8,000 teens ages 14 and 15 are sent to emergency rooms every year for pedestrian accident injuries. A study co-author on this project says that the findings display the importance of sleep for human functioning, and evidence that insufficient sleep influences adolescent safety. Without sufficient sleep people can become inattentive, distractible, or poor decision-makers.

Because many teens walk to school, they are at an even higher risk than other age groups for pedestrian accidents. A groggy student may walk straight into an intersection without looking both ways, or without noticing that a driver is violating a traffic signal. All pedestrians need to be extra-aware of vehicles in this modern era of driving, as many drivers will become easily distracted.

While pedestrians typically have the right of way, drivers will often look at their phones or fiddle with their radios. This means that they may not notice a person crossing the street, and may continue driving straight into the crossing walk. Now that school is back in session, children need to be extra cautious to look both ways when crossing and drivers need to be excessively careful to put their cell phones away and keep their eyes on the road. In many location's, police have issued patrols to monitor school areas so that they can make sure drivers are adhering to basic traffic laws.

Police forces say that they are looking for individuals that are speeding, disregarding stop signs and stop lights, or texting while driving. These people can be penalized. If you want more information about car accidents, or if your loved one was injured in a pedestrian accident and you want to seek compensation, then you can contact a local car accident attorney to help you. With the right car accident lawyer on your side, you may be able to obtain both punitive and medical damages. You also may be able to gain damages for any time off work that you had to spend to care for your child or loved one. Contact a car accident attorney right away by using this directory!