A team at Argus magazine wanted to know if the driving recommendations for long road trips were sufficient.
A motorist and member of the Argus editorial team volunteered to be the test subject. He drove from Nice to Paris, a distance of 930 km. He took the recommended break every two hours, drove within the speed limit and ate a light lunch.
He was hooked up to a device that held 15 electrodes. It measured his every move and various states. During the drive, he managed to doze for 11 minutes. The most frightening thing is that he did not even notice. That means he drove almost 24 km at 130 mph in a drowsy state.
The driver said he felt three major waves of fatigue. Yet they were not related to states of drowsiness recorded by the device. The electrodes identified eight states of drowsiness varying from 30 seconds to two and a half minutes long.
Drowsiness is one of the leading causes of highway accidents along with drunk driving and speeding.