You know that you shouldn’t drive under the influence and you shouldn’t be distracted when you drive, but what about when you’re sick? Say you wake up one day and you’re feeling a bit under the weather, but you still need to go to work. Should you get in the car and drive?
While it is true that there’s a lot of nuance to this because all sicknesses are a bit different, the reality is that it’s often a bad idea to drive when you’re sick. It is more dangerous.
Sick driving is distracted driving
First and foremost, you’re distracted by the fact that you’re sick. You may be thinking about your symptoms or sneezing and coughing in the car. You may not be able to see as well, or you may feel like you’re out of it, with slow reaction times and other issues of this sort. You’re just not alert and awake the way that you would be on a normal day when you are feeling healthy.
Some medications could put you under the influence
Depending on what type of medication you take for the sickness, you could also risk driving under the influence. This could lead to an arrest or cause a car accident. It’s always important to consider the side effects of different medications and to know if it is even legal to drive after you take them.
What if a sick driver hits you?
You may decide that you’re always going to call in sick when you’re not feeling well, but other drivers don’t do this. Studies have found that many Americans go to work sick, so you always face this risk during your commute, and you need to know what to do if one of these drivers causes an accident.