Blood tests are widely used to determine if a driver who has caused an accident has been consuming alcohol or drugs. But scientists are split on the ethics of penalising drivers who drive dangerously because they haven’t got enough sleep.
At the moment, drivers are largely left to judge for themselves whether they are too tired to drive, but the development of biomarkers to detect sleepiness could change that, and make it easier to prosecute drivers who cause an accident because they are impaired due to sleep deprivation.
