英语课程计划-awareness day（在线收听）

California has an awareness day that all countries around the world should have. It is Drowsy Driver Awareness Day and it happens on April 6 every year. Its aim is to raise awareness of the dangers of driving your car (or riding your motorcycle) for long periods without a rest. It also highlights the dangers of driving when you are very tired. The day was thought up by former California Highway Patrol officer Phil Konstantin. He witnessed many accidents that happened because of tiredness and had experience of falling asleep at the wheel and narrowly avoided a serious accident. He also tells the tragic story of how his wife died in a car accident because she fell asleep at the wheel. He warned: “It can happen to anyone.”

Drowsy Driver Awareness Day is also a memorial day for those who have died in a car crash involving a drowsy driver. California’s Highway Patrol says 100 people die each year in collisions with drowsy drivers. It says in the ten-year period between 1993 and 2003, over 41,000 people died  in accidents where a drowsy driver was involved. America’s National Sleep Foundation reports that 62 per cent of people drive while feeling drowsy. In addition, 27 per cent said they had actually dozed off while driving. Many more people die each year from crashes related to drowsy drivers than from many serious illnesses. On this day, do something to make drivers aware of the dangers of getting behind the wheel when they are tired.