Be On the Lookout! With School Starting There is a Increase in Car Accidents, warns West Virginia Attorney Jeffrey T. Jones.

Charleston, WV – August 15, 2012 – With School beginning it is important for your child to get plenty of sleep so he or she can be a champion in classroom, but did you know sleep was just as important so he or she could be a champion outside the classroom, especially when it comes to their driving.

Lawyer and Businessman, Jeffrey T. Jones, cites a recent study in Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine shows increased automobile crash rates among teen drivers who start school earlier in the morning. According to the study done in Virginia, The weekday crash rate for 16- to 18-year-olds was about 41 percent higher in Virginia Beach, Va., where high school classes began at 7:20 — 7:25 a.m., than in adjacent Chesapeake, Va., where classes started at 8:40 — 8:45 a.m. In a secondary analysis that evaluated only the traditional school months of September through June, the weekday crash rate for teen drivers was 25 percent higher in Virginia Beach (80.0) than in Chesapeake (64.0).

“All this make sense,” said Charleston WV personal injury attorney Jeffrey T. Jones. “ With all the activities available to our teenagers, school sports, band, dance, movies and using the computer and playing video games into the night, it no wonder our kids don’t get enough sleep.

“I have 2 teenagers and one that’s driving and I have to preach to them on most nights to get to bed.”

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the average teen needs a little more than nine hours of sleep each night. However, chronic sleep restriction is a common problem among teens. During adolescence, a biological change shifts the typical onset of sleepiness later at night. This delay can make it a challenge for teens to get enough sleep when they have to wake up early for school.

Mr. Jones points out that several studies by reputable organizations, including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, conclude that starting high school later in the morning may promote driver alertness and enhance cognitive performance by allowing teens to get more sleep at night.  In the study, when school started one hour later the crash rate dropped by over 16%.

With school starting one hour later, the percentage of students who got at least eight hours of sleep per weeknight increased significantly, by about 15% and students who got nine hours of sleep increased by over 2.5%.

“It is surprising that high schools continue to set their start times early, which impairs learning, attendance and driving safety of the students,” said senior author Barbara Phillips, MD, director of the UK Healthcare Good Samaritan Sleep Center in Lexington, Ky.

The authors of this study also reported that both social and biological pressures appear to cause a shift in sleep patterns during the transition to adolescence, with the result that adolescents stay up progressively later. As a result, adolescents get an inadequate amount of sleep due to early school start times, which increases their daytime sleepiness and may in turn increase their odds of crashing their vehicles while driving.

“The school starting times here in Charleston WV are ridiculous.  I know some schools that start before 7 am.  How in the world can they expect our kids to be well rested and attentive in class let alone driving to school in the morning,” remarked Jones.

“These surveys show it’s not only beneficial to the kids, as far as their ability to learn, to have a later starting time for our schools, but also cuts down on the number of car accidents and makes our roadways safer!”

Attorney Jeffrey Jones has been recognized as one to the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in West Virginia.  Jones represents persons injured or killed in accidents and has written the West Virginia Automobile Accident Injury Guide along with Special Report dealing with car accidents and insurance companies.

In his work, he also helps individuals and businesses solve their IRS problems.  He is the author of the book “Dealing with and IRS Problem” and has written Special Reports dealing with business payroll taxes and ways to solve your IRS problems.

For more information on Jeffrey Jones, visit http://www.jeffreytjones.com. or call 1-800-247-2845 or 304-345-3400.