8,000 deaths per year

In April 2007, I collapsed at my desk from exhaustion and broke my cheekbone on the way down. I had barely been getting any sleep for a week and was actually drunk with exhaustion. Luckily, because I was at my desk I was okay, but many people work through exhaustion, like I did, and then make the dangerous decision to get behind the wheel. Drowsy driving is a very real and very dangerous epidemic. It is responsible for 1.2 million crashes annually, involving up to 500,000 injuries and 8,000 lives lost. Driving after being awake for 18 hours is equivalent to .05 BAC (blood alcohol content), which is near the legal limit in the US. And after 24 hours without sleep it is .10 BAC, meaning it's the same as being legally drunk. Think about that. People who would never get behind the wheel after a night of drinking will drive after pulling an all-nighter at work or school without thinking twice. Worse, truck drivers, who are driving against harsh deadlines, are known to drive all day and night, without even realizing it's like doing shots of tequila before getting behind the wheel. That is why we launched a new campaign with Uber to help fight this epidemic. So take the pledge to not drive drowsy, and to make sure your friends and family do the same. The National Sleep Foundation's poll shows 60% of Americans have driven while feeling sleepy and 37% admit to actually having fallen asleep at the wheel in the past year. This is incredible. You would not drink and then drive your children to school, and yet more than half of Americans are putting themselves and their families at risk by driving drowsy. As of right now, Alaska and New Jersey are the only states in America that have laws against drowsy driving. In Alaska, "fatigued driving" is classified as an offense under negligent homicide, and in New Jersey a driver who hasn't slept for 24 hours is considered to be driving recklessly, in the same class as an intoxicated driver. And the first step in fighting drowsy driving is for people like you and me to raise our voices together. Pledge to not drive drowsy, and to make sure your friends and family do the same. Thank you, Sign Arianna's pledge! Follow Arianna on Facebook and Twitter Unsubscribe | Forward 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003