Ever Tried SleepDriving?
May 25th, 2007 by Matthew Jabs
It was a dark & stormy night…
Just kidding, but here’s the story of how I once fell asleep while driving and the consequences my car suffered because of it!
It was a dark & stormy night…okay, just kidding again & I’ll stop now. ;-) I can’t remember the exact date, but about three years ago I drove over toward the Detroit Metro area to hang out with a buddy of mine. Upon arrival, we finished with the formalities & headed out, met up with a few other friends & made a night of it. Toward the end of the night my girlfriend (now wife) called & was urging me to come home that night instead of staying at my friends house (sound familiar?). I weighed the options & decided that because my buddies pad was a much less attractive option (total nasty bachelor pad), and I love my wife dearly (brownie points) I decided to head home.
So I started off on my 90 minute drive at about 3:30am (yes folks, that’s 3:30 in the morning…I know…real smart). I think I made it about 10 minutes before I started doing the famous head bob that’s associated with falling asleep at the wheel. I tried all the traditional remedies including:
- rolling my windows down
- turning up the radio
- eating a snack
- slapping myself in the face ;-) - if you’re unfamiliar, it’s because this is an ancient Chinese remedy…
- etc., etc., etc.
Although I was exercising all the above options that had worked for me in the past, my tiredness was just too much for any such solutions to conquer. I believe I was about half way home when I finally “hit the wall” so to speak. I was driving along, trying not to fall asleep & the next thing I know I awoke to the sound of the expressway groove strips buzzing beneath me. Normally you’d be fine & could just swerve back onto the road, but I happened to be on a section of freeway that included a guard rail not to far from the groove strip. Upon waking I was about 2 inches from the guard rail & traveling at about 73 mph (113 kph). I tried to swerve away & avoid the rail but it was too late. I heard a grinding noise & felt the slight collision on the side of my 98 Ford Mustang.
Some people may think I’m crazy, but I didn’t stop. I kept right on going until I reached home-sweet-home. Once there I exited “Ole’ Blue” to survey the damage. Did I scrape up one door, or one quarter panel? No, that would have been way to lucky. Sure enough, I had scraped the entire side of my car…every part. The front quarter panel, the door, the rear quarter panel, & even one of my bumpers (front I think). Ughhh…but at least I was alive & able to tell the story another day!
I never did get my car fixed so if you see a Blue 98 Ford Mustang with a scraped up driver’s side heading down the road, you may want to pull over & let me pass by!
Just for fun I’m going to link to two similar articles that writing this post made me think of. Here they are: RT is Still Alive & Steve’s Road Rules.
Have you (or someone you know) ever fell asleep at the wheel?
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Posted in: Automobiles, Friends, Humor, Travel | 1,073 views |
Whoa! You are VERY lucky (as were anyone who was on the road at the time).
There was an accident up our way off of I-90 (a major interstate between IL and WI), involving a trucker who fell asleep at the wheel. The people he hit were not very lucky at all, and I remember seeing a flaming hulk of a semi on my way to work that morning.
I’ve also read reports that driving while exhausted is as bad as (if not worse) than drunk driving…
yikes!
You know, I was going to mention that in my post…
Back in college I would drink & drive quite often & actually was busted for it in June of 1999. In my experiences of drinking & driving back then & my experiences of driving while tired…personally I am way more dangerous while tired than I was when I was drinking.
Wow! At least you’ve got home safe.
Its quite really dangerous to drive when you’re kinda sleepy - something might happen to your car and worse to yourself. I haven’t experienced it and hopefully won’t. But I had a friend who had similar experience with yours. He attended a party, drink, and on his way home he kinda sleepy.. To cut the story short, some of his vw passat parts were damaged - dented bumper, broken mirrors,etc.. Thank God his fine. From that day, he doesn’t drive when he drinks..He had learned his lesson. 
Yeah, I’ve done my share of drinking a driving but the one time that I ran my car off the road was when I fell asleep.
I think that God was looking out for me (as He often has) because I was on my way back from Detroit as well. Coming back from a rave, I hadn’t done any drugs or drinking, just very tired at 5am.
Woke up, completely off the road to the right side, the truck was bouncing violently around and it stalled on me when I went to steer it back on the road. I was completely amazed that I hadn’t hit a culver, tree, bridge or something else. Thanks to the Lord.
Yeah good grief you were safe and sound.
Yes…God was watching over me & I was blessed to come out unscathed!
Never drive if your sleepy or intoxicated. Accident is just hanging around the corner. If you cant drive try relaxing or sleeping first before taking the road.