One in five road smashes are due to sleep-deprived drivers reports ANDY TATE.

MOTORISTS who get behind the wheel when tired account for 20 per cent of Britain's road accidents. The findings come from research by online motor insurance company InsureYourMotor.com.

Swindon Council road safety manager Margaret Tester warned that tiredness was not just a problem for long distance lorry drivers.

Parents of young children also needed to be aware that sleeplessness could cause accidents.

Last year, driver drowsiness was thought to be the cause of 40,000 serious injuries and 3,500 deaths on the roads.

The problem is becoming so extreme that tiredness during driving now claims more lives than accidents involving drink drivers, the research suggested.

Sleep related accidents are three times more likely to result in death or serious injury than other road accidents because drowsy drivers do not brake to try to prevent an accident.

The impact is often the first thing to alert the driver to a collision.

The Government is relaunching its Think Don't Drive Tired campaign, first unveiled shortly after driver Gary Hart was jailed for five years for causing the deaths of 10 people in the Selby rail crash.

A jury decided that Hart fell asleep at the wheel of his Land Rover in February 2001 before it plunged off the M62 into the path of an oncoming train. He had hardly slept during the nights leading up to the crash.

"Driving when you're tired is a huge problem in the UK and sleepy drivers still think they can fix the problem by winding the window down or turning the music up but this doesn't help," said RAC spokeswoman Susie Haywood.

"Drivers need to think of driving while tired as a social crime equal to drink-driving.

"You know when you're tired, and only you can take the decision to save lives and pull over, rather than persevere with the journey and threaten lives."

Mrs Tester said Swindon Council would be delivering leaflets to local companies within the next few months to alert them of the dangers of driving while tired.

But she added it was not just companies who had a responsibility to be aware of the potential risks.

"We tend to think of lorry drivers who use tachographs and are obviously expected by law to drive within set limits," she said.

"But it's something we should all be thinking about, especially people with new babies.

"The number of families who have had broken nights' sleep with small children and go off to work in the morning is also a problem."

Top tips.

The RAC has drawn up the following guidelines for preventing tiredness while driving:

Prepare for the journey by packing the night before so you have a clear head in the morning, and get a good night's sleep before setting off.

Avoid driving in the early hours (midnight to 7am) or during the 'post-lunch dip' (1pm to 4pm), as these are the times when alertness is decreased.

Don't drive at night if you can avoid it, as internal biological clocks encourage most people to sleep when it is dark.

Take rest breaks. Don't drive for more than two hours at a time and ensure you stop to get food and drink if you feel at all sleepy. Don't be embarrassed to pull over somewhere safe to take a short nap.

Listen to your body. If you feel tired and you're fighting sleep pull over. The most visible characteristic of driver sleepiness is drifting between lanes.

Keep yourself awake. Set the car ventilation to blow cold, fresh air at your face. Opening the windows often has little effect. Also, listen to music or talk with a passenger any variable sound will assist in keeping you alert.

Andy Tate