Falling asleep while driving...

[Rowboat]

I was following a friend home one night when he smacked into a guard rail messing up the whole right side of his car.

He said he was closing his eyes to see how long he could go.

Sad.

 

[bignateyk]

Driving tired is worse than driving drunk.

Also, there is a difference between falling asleep at the wheel and sleep driving. I have done both. I woke up in the parking lot at work one time 3 hours before I was supposed to start and I had no idea how I got there. That's sleep driving. I caught myself right as I was falling asleep at the wheel one time and the shot of adrenalin I got woke me up for the remainder of the trip.

I always take a caffeinated beverage with me on road trips just in case I get tired. Driving tired is just as irresponsible as driving drunk, and causes far more deaths each year.

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: Auric
Deceptive title. I was expecting purposely closing for the giggles which I must admit to doing occasionally when there is no other traffic.

Ever turned your headlights off? It's amazing...you can actually drive perfectly well on ambient light (Don't do this in the mountains or when it's cloudy). In a sense you actually see even better without your headlights, since you're not blinded by the nearby pavement, so visibility extends quite a bit further. But no one can see YOU, so I don't recommend it.

Why yes, of course

Originally posted by: jagec
I haven't nodded off while driving, but I have done something worse.

I had been driving some CRAZY amount...Seattle->Indiana->Maine->NYC->South Carolina, visiting friends. Anyway, me and a friend (who had no license) were pulled over at a rest stop, sleeping in the car. I was in the driver's seat, he in the front passenger's. Some odd hour in the morning, I half-wake up in a panic, convinced that I was stopped with all the lights off in the middle of the freeway. "We're going to get hit!", I thought, "I have to find a place to pull over where it's safe!" and so I scrambled to pull out the keys. I started the car, backed out of our parking spot (I don't know what was going through my head at this point), and started to drive down the freeway entrance ramp, squinting through the fogged-up windshield, with my conscious mind still out of it, still somewhat panicked. Finally I...came aware...and realized what I was doing. My friend woke up a little and asked something, and I said some sort of BS about moving the car. Then I backed up, re-parked in a spot, and from then on I hid the keys any time I was sleeping in the car.

So there you have it. I've never fallen asleep while driving, but I have driven in my sleep.

That' muy loco but funny at the same time.

 

[zoiks]

Originally posted by: dug777
I've fallen asleep and ended up in a road drain. Luckily it was wide open country and I just got the shock of my life.

Drowsy Drivers Die.

And yet you survived

 

[Linflas]

I fell asleep driving from Norfolk to northern Virginia one evening when I was in the Navy. Lucky for me I was holding a quarter in my hand for a toll and it dropped onto a hard plastic piece and the noise woke me up. I was heading straight for the shoulder of the road when I woke up.

 

[AlienCraft]

Isn't that what cruise control is for ? :shocked:
When i die, I want to go in my sleep, like my grandfather.

Not screaming in terror like those in the back seat of his car. < rim shot>

< cues band .... Thanks... I'm here all week... 2 shows a day.... <puts arms around show girls , exits stage left >

 

[AlienCraft]

Now that my bullet-proofing has expired, I will pull over and catch a few ZZZs.
I'm trying to get those last 40 odd years as advertised.

 

[waggy]

nope never have done it. i do my best to time it so i won't be driving while tired. if i do get tired i will either pull over and sleep ro get a hotel/motel room.

its not worth wrecking my car or killing someone.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: potato28
Hit the side anti-sleep bumpers on the 401 going from London to Oshawa, through Chatham. It's a really boring drive, flat and no corners for almost 30 minutes.

^ this person knows my sleepy drive route

I've been doing Windsor > Waterloo quite a bit lately! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[AmpedSilence]

wow, I thought i was the only one that did this!

When i had an hour commute to and from work; It happened to me a few times. Always caught myself just in time before anything bad happened. I am one lucky bastard.

 

[Beev]

I once nodded off for a very brief second and was in the other lane heading straight at a cop... I got back in my lane casually and looked in my mirror like I was pretending to avoid something.

 

[skace]

I've done it a few times. Not sure how long I was out, probably just a second or two, since when I reopened my eyes I was always in the same lane, only a few feet further down the road. Scary none the less.

 

[rasczak]

used to do it daily before i got my new job.

before this job I worked for a school from 700am to 230 pm and then worked as a tech for camp pendleton from 4pm to 12am.

needless to say i was a little tired on the drive home. finally transferred to another base closer to home and ditched that.

 

[lokiju]

Yep.

For a split second and then I caught myself and pulled over at the next stop.

 

[yhelothar]

Originally posted by: Beev
I once nodded off for a very brief second and was in the other lane heading straight at a cop... I got back in my lane casually and looked in my mirror like I was pretending to avoid something.

I bet that woke you up for a good while

 

[TallBill]

Dozens of times.

 

[lozina]

I've gotten dangerously close several times. It's funny how quickly it can happen too. One minute I feel as fresh a daisy on bright sunny morning then BAM my eyelids feel like they weigh 200 lbs and I'm struggling for dear life to keep em open

I usually slap myself, turn the music real high and open the window if it's cold out or blast the AC if its warm out to wake me up

 

[paulxcook]

I fell asleep semi-regularly while driving when I was working the night shift at FedEx. I'd always snap out of it almost immediately, thankfully. I don't miss working there.

 

[joejld1]

This woman did it:

Woman sleep-driving

 

[Siddhartha]

Once I fell asleep driving to work and when I woke up some how my car had made a left turn instead of a right and I was on my way to NYC.

A morning around 3 am I was driving on the NJ turnpike about 20 miles before GW bridge. I woke up and my car was going towards the medium at 75 mph. I straightened the car up and woke up with my car going towards an overpass embankment at 80 mph. I straighten the car and woke up again with the car going straight. I got off the road on to the shoulder and waited until my breathing slow down before I got back on the road.

One morning about 2 am, traffic has stopped about 10 miles from the GW bridge. I woke up maybe 20 minutes later in the middle lane with no other cars around.

 

[amicold]

Never have, even after being up 36 hours and feeling like I needed to sleep, I never get droopy-eyed or drowsy behind the wheel.

 

[Absinth Minded]

I did it once after a Cincinnati Reds game around 2 am. I was on a 3 lane highway in the far right lane and then magically I was in the far left lane. Talk about freaking out...

 

[HardcoreRobot]

friend in college died, fell asleep at the wheel veered into oncoming traffic. comp sci phd candidate, such a waste.
a friend from earlier in life fell asleep at the wheel in college driving home from a concert. he survived, but his passenger didnt

i do not understand why people even attempt this, or why the issue does not have more attention. id much prefer someone on the road after 3 or 4 beers than someone that has been up for 24hrs+. i know studies have been done that show similar effects of sleep deprivation. dont drive tired!

 

[BurnItDwn]

I sometimes drive tired, but I'm one of those wierd people who's NEVER able to relax enough and be comfortable enough to actually sleep in a car. The noise from the road and the motion is too much and it keeps me awake. It's nice when I'm driving, but it sucks when I'm in the passenger seat on a long road trip and I can't even get a wink of sleep (even if I take some diphenhydramine to intentionally make myself extra drowsy)

 

[mugs]

I have been so tired while driving that I could not keep my eyes open. The usually 10 hour trip from college to home turned into a 16 hour trip after we hit snow through western PA and the female who was driving my car drove it down a very steep embankment along an interstate. That was AWESOME. At least she had AAA. After dropping her off and continuing toward my house (3 more hours) I couldn't stay awake, so I stopped at the next rest stop and slept for an hour. That got me through the last hour and a half of my drive.