The findings in a report in the December issue of The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine suggest that allowing teenage students to get more sleep in the morning may have broader health benefits.

School officials in Lexington, Kentucky found out that be pushing back the start of their middle and high schools by an hour in 1997, they also found that the number of car accidents involving teenage drivers decreased.

Our car accident lawyers are aware of the fact that teenage drivers already have a high chance of getting into an accident on the road due to their inexperience, but now drowsy-driving can be added to the list of things that cause wrongful deaths in fatal teen crashes.

While research does not directly indicate that the change in school starting times (from 7 to 7:30 a.m. in the high schools and from 8 to 8:30 a.m. in middle schools) led to improvement in auto accident rates, a study afterward found a significant drop in car accidents in Fayette County — 16% for 17- to 19-year olds — where Lexington is located.  In the rest of the state, those numbers increased by almost 8%.

Our car accident lawyers endorse the concept of starting high school later in the day.  That extra hour clearly positively affected teen car accident statistics in that county of Kentucky.

Teen drivers are staying up later than ever with the internet and television offering entertainment around the clock.  It would be naïve of us to think that just because students have an early alarm setting that they will make sure they get at least the recommended eight hours of sleep a night.  In Lexington, they found that students who reported getting at least eight hours of sleep jumped from just 38 percent to 50 percent the year starting times were moved back.

With teenage drivers killing themselves in car accidents all across the nation, our firm’s litigators would welcome any and all efforts to diminish these statistics.It seems like they are on to something down in Lexington.

Hopefully, the rest of the country is listening.

If you were injured and believe that you deserve compensation, then call our bilingual law offices right away at 1-858-551-2090 or click here for a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney and find out how we can help you.  We look forward to providing good advice for your case.  There is no fee if no recovery.