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Your lifestyle and driving
Learn about how the way you live your life can affect how you drive.
In this topic
Lifestyle choices that can affect your driving
Driving when you're fatigued
How to tell you’re driving fatigued
Strategies to manage your fatigue
The Driver Reviver program
Alcohol, drugs and driving
Prescription and over-the-counter medicines
Lifestyle choices that can affect your driving
How you live your life can sometimes affect how you drive.
So you should have some strategies to improve your focus and concentration.
Some examples of lifestyle factors that may affect your driving include:
- Working or studying late.
- Drugs or alcohol.
- Being awake at times when you’re normally sleeping.
Driving when you're fatigued
Driving when you’re tired will affect your focus and concentration, which may cause you to:
- Respond slowly.
- Make poor driving decisions.
- Choose gaps that are too small.
- Misjudge corner speed.
- Drift into other lanes, trees or objects.
- Reduce your ability to see, think about and respond to hazards.
How to tell you’re driving fatigued
Stop driving and take a break if you experience signs of fatigue while driving, such as:
- You can’t remember the last few moments of driving.
- You start to daydream.
- You start making small mistakes.
- Your driving isn’t smooth.
- You keep yawning.
- You start drifting in your lane.
- You notice your speed is fluctuating.
Strategies to manage your fatigue
Here are some things you can do to manage your fatigue:
- Avoid driving at times you’d normally be sleeping.
- Get plenty of sleep before you drive.
- Avoid going for drives after a long day of study or work.
- Plan for and take regular breaks every one and a half to two hours.
- Be aware of any medications that may make you drowsy.
- Swap drivers.
You must always drive with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of zero and never drive under the influence of illicit drugs.
The Driver Reviver Program
The Driver Reviver and Pause Stop sites program aims to reduce road collisions by providing designated stops for drivers to stop, rest and refresh with free tea, coffee and biscuits.
Alcohol, drugs and driving
Driving when you’ve had alcohol, drugs or medicines can:
- Affect your ability to make decisions.
- Make you feel as if you’re a better driver.
- Make you take more risks.
- Make you have slower reflexes.
- Affect your co-ordination.
- Make you tired or sleepy.
- Affect your ability to look for, think about and respond to hazards.
- Make you misjudge distance and speed.
- Affect your hearing and vision.
Some prescription and over-the-counter medicines will affect your ability to drive safely. Check with your doctor or pharmacist to be sure.