The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that drowsy driving causes at least 100-thousand crashes each year, claiming over 15 hundred lives and injuring over 71 thousand people.
Cindy O'Connor from Olive Bridge, in Ulster County, knows all too well the dangers of drowsy driving.
In 2002 her son Kevin was killed by a school bus driver who had fallen asleep.
"It took me two years to find out the details, but we learned that the driver that killed Kevin drove off the road 200 feet before striking and killing him, he had fallen asleep at the wheel."
O'Connor joined officials from Strong Hospital and several state agencies to remind motorists about the dangers of drowsy driving.
Dr. Mike Kamali from Strong Hospital says they see many patients in the ER as a result of drowsy driving.
"We see it first hand at the University related to car accidents, where people were falling asleep at the wheel, either go off the road or crash into another vehicle, and can have significant injuries."
Dr. Kamali says it's not worth it to risk your life or someone else's to drowsy driving.
"Pull over, stop at the next rest stop, take a break, get a short nap, grab a cup of coffee, walk around, some of those things. Sometimes you just need to pull over and sleep for a little while."
DOT officials say rumble strips have proven to be effective, but they can't solely engineer their way to safer roads.
Here's Chuck DeWeese, Assistant Commissioner for the Governor's Traffic Safety Committee, talking about the dangers of drowsy driving: