New Jersey has become the first state to outlaw driving while sleep-deprived.

The law, enacted in August, allows prosecutors to charge extremely sleepy drivers with vehicular homicide if at fault in a fatal accident.

Maggie’s Law, as it’s called, is named for the woman killed in 1997 by the driver of a van who admitted to being awake for 30 consecutive hours.

Twenty-year-old Maggie McDonnell’s car was struck head-on when the sleepy driver swerved across three lanes.

The driver of the van was fined $200. The new legislation would allow such extreme cases to result in prison terms of up to 10 years and fines of $100,000.

Sleepy drivers can be charged under the law only after an accident has occurred. Then, the driver must admit to having been awake for 24 hours before the accident, or police must prove the driver was.

Maggie’s Law is the first of its kind in the country intended to keep extremely sleep-deprived drivers off the road.

Most commercial drivers already have to meet nationwide rest requirements. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires that those drivers get 10 hours of rest between 11-hour driving shifts. Drivers have to keep a log book of their times, and can be ticketed if they violate the rest requirements.

“Fatigue is an impairment like drugs or alcohol. It’s something that should also be prosecutable,” said Darrell Drobnich, senior director of government affairs at the National Sleep Foundation.

“We don’t believe everyone should be sent to jail, but it should be something a jury can deliberate upon and decide,” Drobnich said.

The National Sleep Foundation lobbied for Maggie’s Law, but Drobnich said it’s not perfect. He said he would like to see more educational approaches to prevent drowsy driving.

Congress now is considering legislation that will give money to the Department of Transportation to encourage an education program for states to prevent drowsy driving.

Without proper legislation or necessary standard devices to measure one’s degree of alertness, police in Illinois cannot directly enforce a drowsy-driving policy.

“Drivers are still subject to other offenses,” said Lt. Van Bomar of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Police. He said drowsy drivers cannot be charged with being sleepy, but they could see charges like improper lane use or reckless driving as a result of being sleepy.

Bomar said the sheriff’s department does not deal with many sleepy drivers, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out there. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates 100,000 reported accidents annually are directly related to drowsiness or fatigue.

Drobnich said there is no law or pending legislation in Illinois that would make driving drowsy a crime. He said sleepy drivers in Delaware can be ticketed under a broad, inattentive driving statute. He said a seldom-enforced Virginia law restricts drivers from driving more than 13 consecutive hours.