Dehydration As Bad As Drink Driving

21 April 2015, 06:37 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

East Midlands scientists reckon being dehydrated while driving is just as dangerous as drink driving.

A Loughborough University study claims that even mild dehydration is equivalent to being over the drink driving limit in terms of driver errors.

Scientists reckon drivers people who don't drink 25 mililitres of water every hour are twice as likely to make mistakes.

Lane Drifting and Late Braking

Researchers at Loughborough University carried out tests over two days on men, using a laboratory-based driving simulator.

During the normal hydration test there were 47 driving incidents, but when the men were dehydrated that number more than doubled to 101; a similar number to what might be expected of someone driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The errors included lane drifting, late braking and touching or crossing the rumble strip or lane line.

Professor Ron Maughan

'We all deplore drink driving, but we don't usually think about the effects of other things that affect our driving skills, and one of those is not drinking and dehydration.

'There is no question that driving while under the influence of drink or drugs increases the risk of accidents, but our findings highlight an unrecognised danger and suggest that drivers should be encouraged to make sure they are properly hydrated.'