FALLING asleep at the wheel used to be an excuse. The defendant is very sorry for causing the fatal accident, Your Honour, it was unintentional, he nodded off whilst driving.

But now such arguments could make the crime worse in the eyes of the law and lead to a longer sentence. A driver who kills someone after falling asleep should automatically go to prison for at least two-years, judges have been told.

A mandatory jail term would certainly be a wake-up call for drivers across the country. Let's face it, most of us have driven at some time in our lives when we were tired. We wind down the windows, turn up the radio, and keep on going. Falling asleep at the wheel is something that happens to other drivers.

But, it seems, being blase about driver fatigue is no longer an option, unless you are prepared to accept the possibility of ending up behind bars.

Professor Martin Wasik, chairman of the Independent Sentencing Advisory Panel, which made the recommendation for cases in England and Wales, said: "Falling asleep is more likely to aggravate than mitigate the seriousness of an offence because drivers do not normally fall asleep without warning.

"The proper course of action for a motorist who feels drowsy is to stop driving and rest. It should be regarded as an aggravating factor and we recommend should be sentenced with two to five years imprisonment.

"In the past it has been treated as a reason to deal with the offender more lightly because it wasn't wide-awake recklessness."

There's no doubt that driving whilst tired can have devastating consequen-ces. Gary Hart caused the deaths of 10 people in the Selby train when his Land Rover and trailer ran off the M62 and on to the East Coast mainline.

Before setting off on his journey, Hart who was jailed for five years in January last year had been on the telephone all night to a woman he met on the Internet.

The judge in his case, Mr Justice Mackay, likened Hart's irresponsibility in taking to the road without sleep to that of a drink driver.

Driver sleepiness is thought to cause at least 10 per cent of all road accidents and as many as one in four accidents on motorways and trunk roads.

Men are more at risk of having a sleep related accident as they drive faster, have an over-confident image of their driving skills and are less likely to stop and take a break if they feel tired, according to research by the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

But in the UK, where we constantly juggle work with home life, work longer hours than any other European country, and can no longer rely on the rail network as a reliable alternative to motoring, is driving whilst tired simply an inevitable and necessary hazard?

Safety campaigners agree that the pressures of modern life do not help, but insist there is no justification for taking to the road in an

unfit condition. "Nobody falls asleep without warning, and if somebody experiences symptoms of tiredness and deliberately carries on driving, it is a serious matter," says Kevin Clinton, head of Road Safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

"Driving whilst tired is a conscious, deliberate act, in the same way as getting behind the wheel after a drink.

"If you wind down the window, or put the radio on loud to keep awake, you know you are tired and what you really need to do is to get off the road."

When it comes to drink-driving, we all know the legal limits, but how can we similarly measure tiredness? With busy lifestyles, just how do we judge when everyday post-work weariness becomes lethal?

"It's difficult," says Clinton.

"But drivers must remember that when they are tired and keep going, their concentration levels are much lower.

"Even though they might not go all the way to falling asleep, they could still cause an accident."