One of the single most difficult things for millions of Americans to do is secure eight hours of sleep. While this can be attributed to everything from generalized anxiety and acid reflux disorder to newborn babies and noisy neighbors, it can also be attributed to a serious condition known as obstructive sleep apnea. Interestingly enough, a recently published study by researchers in Italy revealed that truckers suffering from obstructive sleep apnea -- or OSA -- have a considerable higher crash risk than their counterparts able to secure a good night's rest. What is OSA?     OSA is a breathing disorder in which a person's airway actually collapses during sleep, resulting in a coughing/gasping reflex that wakes them momentarily. As this happens many times throughout the course of the night, it prevents the person from ever falling into a deep, restorative sleep cycle. Many times, people are unaware they have the…

For those who might have missed it, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a rather grim report last week outlining just how deadly our nation's roads and highways have become. Indeed, this report indicated that almost 18,000 people lost their lives in motor vehicle accidents during the first half of 2016, a 10 percent increase from the same time last year and a continuation of a startling trend that began in 2015. As to why the number of motor vehicle fatalities has spiked, NHTSA officials attribute it to the reality that there are more people driving owing to lower gas prices and improved economic conditions, and the longstanding problem of distracted driving. In response to the report, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that several of its agencies -- the NHTSA, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration  and the Federal Highway Administration -- would be joining forces with the…

While the last few decades have seen automakers make tremendous strides in protecting vehicle occupants involved in crashes, the last few years have seen these safety efforts shift considerably. Indeed, the focus now seems to be more on preventing car crashes altogether via so-called self-driving technology than enhancing existing safety technology. Indeed, there are many vehicles currently out on the roads and highways equipped with some degree of self-driving technology right now, such as cruise control systems that don't just set a speed, but also help steer the vehicle and keep it within its lane. As fascinating as this development has been, it goes without saying that drivers of vehicles equipped with this sort of technology are in no way able to take their eyes off the road completely and, by extension, that we are still several years away from fully self-driving vehicles. Interestingly enough, a group of researchers at…