On July 2, 1997, 20-year old Maggie McDonnell was helping out a co-worker when she drove to work at 11:30 a.m. Sadly, she never made it there. She was killed by a man who fell asleep while driving and hit Maggies car head-on. 

He admitted that he had been awake for 30 hours after he smoked crack cocaine at a local drug house. He was not under the influence of drugs at the time of the crash. 

Yet, because there was no specific law addressing fatigue or drowsy driving in New Jersey at the time, the jury was not allowed to deliberate on the mans sleep deprivation and his punishment for killing Maggie was a suspended jail sentence and a $200 fine. Yet, from tragedy came hope. 

Carole McDonnell, Maggies mother, successfully lobbied the State of New Jersey to enact the nations first drowsy driving law. Titled Maggies Law, it establishes fatigued driving as recklessness under the states vehicular homicide statute.

The Maggies law narrowly defines fatigue as being without sleep for a period in excess of 24 consecutive hours.  Currently, a number of states are considering similar drowsy driving legislation, including New York, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Oregon, Kentucky, and Illinois. 

For more information visit   http://drowsydriving.org/2009/07/maggie-mcdonnell/