This holiday season is ready to ramp up with Christmas and New Years and law enforcement agencies will be doing everything possible to promote safe and responsible driving. Although the focus of many of these issues will be on distracted and drunk driving, there is another cause that deserves prominent attention.

A State Line study talks about a AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety research project, showing that drowsy drivers could be involved in more than 300,000 crashes every single year on average in the United States. More than 6400 of these would have fatal consequences. These numbers could be even higher because the information collected on police reports at accident scenes is incomplete. Sleep deprivation is, unfortunately, a primary culprit of these accidents.

More than one-third of adults in the United States do not get the seven hours of sleep a day needed for optimum health, according to research from U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Make sure you plan in plenty of time to stop and get rest as you are driving to your family members and friends this holiday season. You could help prevent distracted and drowsy driving accidents by being mindful of your behavior and ensuring that you always have safety top of mind.