[WillowTheWhisp]

I think I agree with you Bonnyboy. I know two people who suffer from sleep apnoea and both of them just suddenly drop off to sleep. They don't doze or behave like other people who feel sleepy and drowsy.One minute they are wide awake and next minute they are snoring. If something suddenly wakens them they are not even aware of how long they have been asleep. One of them used to drive and had an accident, drove into a garden fence and rolled the car over. Until then he wasn't even aware that it happened either. He was fortunate in that no other car was involved and neither he nor his passengers were seriously hurt.

I don't know how long this chap had been up and about and been driving as that isn't clear in the article. The early hour of the morning gives the implication that he had been maybe overdoing it and been driving for too long but it's all relative. Some people get up at 7am, set off for work at 8am and can be driving for several hours - he may not have actually been on the road any longer than that.

However, if he had been driving for a long time and not taken any breaks then that could be taken into account as a contributory factor and most people should have sense to take a break. It's not clear whether he did or not, although he does say he didn't feel sleepy. I think that is often a characteristic of sleep apnoea that the sufferer isn't actually aware of feeling sleepy.

In any case nothing can bring back those whose lives have been lost. If the purpose of the punishment is to prevent the person from doing it again I would say that it's unnecessary because he is hardly likely to ever do it again now that he knows he has such a problem whether he is punished or not. If the idea is to discourage other people from doing the same thing then it's pointless because anyone else in the same situation may well also not know they suffer from this problem and so wouldn't consider it related to them.