Been there, done that. When I start to get tired I pull over and grab a nap.

Just picked up a new car in January and drove from Vancouver to Phoenix. About 20 miles South of Seattle got a bit tired after waking up at 0300 in the morning to make the ferry crossing work. Pulled over for a nap and woke up by slamming car doors and flashing lights in the mirror.

Highway patrol stopped "just in case" (as well to look at the car I suspect) and when I told them I was just tired and pulled over to sleep the officer said "good call" and have a good drive home.

Ever roll down the window and stick your head out like a dog... Gives you another five minutes plus or minus.

A Thai friend once told me that truck drivers in Thailand kept a baggie of lemon slices handy to suck on when they started to get drowsy. I tried it and it seemed to work.

One night after a long day at work, I opened my eyes, realized I was about to run into the back of a truck. I put my 944 into a 180 spin and missed everything, except the front air dam clipped the curb. I credit doing D/Es with able to spin it with control. Driving tired is worse than driving drunk.

I eat the shells too

T.C.

Wolfe, I am so glad
A) You're OK
B) Likewise the 911
C) The Alien zombies decided to throw you back.

(When driving through Tacoma, I just open the window, the gag reflex caused by the aroma keeps me from slumber,)

Glad to hear your OK Wolfe!
I have somewhat of the opposite problem; I'm never tired. Only sleep 5 or 6 hrs a night, but if I didn't do something physical (;)) I'd never get to sleep.

Once again, glad you're OK buddy.

anyone ever zone out while wide awake. I've been driving and all of a sudden i just realize that for the last 2-3 miles I've been on autopilot and not even been paying attention. i come out of my daze and Im like wtf? how did i get here i don't remember driving here....it usually happens on the highway in on long stretches in traffic.

when i moved out to cali, i lost a tire on my rental trailer..i got zero sleep. i busted down on the corner of gage and figueroa in LA. the locals should know the corner...the company man showed up at 7:00 am with a new tire. i moved out, and tried to find a hotel. this one guy told me he would need to charge me two days or something..something about 11am checkout...well i pushed on. going up the grapevine, i was talking to my (then) girlfriend. asking her to keep me awake. then it dawned on me that i was SOLO. i pulled over at the next rest area and passed out. i was so scared. i could have killed people. STUPID!

or talking on your cell phone


Try some strong peppermints, like Altoids. Good for nausea and fatigue ostensibly. Seemed to work for me.

I wonder how many wrecks happen from fatigue, just falling asleep at the wheel.

Quite a few, evidently. Talked to a friend today...she rolled her van down a slope up on the Santiam Pass....rolled 3 or 4 times, ended upside down, caught by a tree. Luckily for her, she escaped with a bruised knee. Doubly luckily, she was being followed by a batch of Boy Scouts on their way to Camp Pioneer....

Yep...fell asleep!

I credit the Driver Skills days and AutoX's with PCA for my ability to recover from being so close to the wall. I would have ro say from the time I became alert from the debris to the time I was turning away from the wall way maybe 1 second.
herr_oberst, this happened about a mile south of the Tacoma Mall. They really need to put road banannas on the sides of the road down there.

A good book on tape/CD is the most effective keep-awake for me. Loud music, open windows, coffee are less effective.

Usually when I'm struggling to stay awake on the road, I'm not actually exhausted. It's just that my mind reacts to boredom by falling asleep.
And I have a really low threshold of boredom. One hour behind the wheel can have me yawning and sleepy.

I guess some of us live in a near constant low level of sleep deprivation too, what with work hours.

When I was younger, I used to drive between LA and SF often, like monthly. It was an 8 hour drive in my old VW. I didn't have much trouble with sleepiness, maybe because of youthful energy or chemical enhancements. But I'd often slip into autopilot mode and then "come to" with no memory of the past hour.

You want a good read along these lines, I recommend The Spirit of St Louis, Lindbergh's classic tale of his solo NY-Paris flight. He took off after having been awake for some 20 hours, and fought against sleep for much of his flight, as he skimmed 50 feet above the North Atlantic wavetops. He said that the Spirit was a twitchy plane which helped him stay awake.

I was in high school and working closing shifts at a restaurant. Driving my 63 VW home past midnight. Home during the summer was 40 minutes away, a beach cabin the family had. Home normally was 5 minutes. I woke up on the side of a 2 lane highway having run out of gas. Running out of gas saved my bacon.

That's what I do on long trips.

I started pulling over for naps after a few close ones. In college I used to be able to do really, really long drives (20hrs) without trouble, but klooking back, I think cigarettes helped immensely. Its next to impossible to fall alseep while smoking.

I want to die peacefully, in my sleep, just like grandpa died. Not in a screaming panic like everyone else in the car.

I do some pretty long drives rather frequently. I am a bad sleeper- i.e. I never get enough sleep at night and usually go on these trips without having proper rest first. What helps me get through it is talking to myself. If there is no one to talk to I will just pick a topic on something and recite what I know and whatnot to an imaginary person. It sounds like craziness but it really keeps me awake.

I have had a similar oh-s experience but instead of a wall it was a 6,000lb SUV coming at me in oncoming traffic. Bad times.

Not my proudest moment... circa 1980.

Driving home about midnight after an 18 hour day of work, school, and the local bar. On a road I traveled daily, limit is 50, very wide, and steep downgrade for half a mile....

...... when I picked up my head and opened my eyes, I was immediately struck by how glaringly bright everything was. In another nanosecond, I realized I was quickly approaching the rear of a huge white motor home that was now engulfing my windshield. I swung right and somehow missed the slow moving fortress, but now I was heading for the hills and telephone poles, literally. So I swung back left and that was it for any iota of control as my '70 Mach1 Mustang went into a 540 degree spin. I survived it, but my car door caught one of those 3 ft reflective posts and creased it as the car passed over it. My rubber figure 8's were etched on the road as reminder of my stupidity for many months.

I went from being dead tired, to almost dead, to not blinking the rest of the trip home. It was only luck that disaster didn't end my life or someone else's.

Knock on wood, I've never fallen asleep while behind the wheel. And I have driven in some very exhaustive situations - like driving home from 24 hour disaster recovery tests, driving 8-9 hours home from VIR and Mid-Ohio to Northern NJ. One thing that has worked for me is to drink lots of soda - not only because of the caffeine, but also because when I gotta pee on the road, that keeps me alert and awake!

Side note: my company, Mercedes-Benz is working on some high tech stuff to help detect and prevent drivers falling alseep behind the wheel - this goes beyond the 'drifting out of the late' systems that are on the horizon. The car will beep and display a coffee mug in the center console (and continue to beep louder and louder) if certain parameters occur - for example - if the driver starts driving with just one hand, after already driving for hours with two hands. If the driver turns up the radio and/or opens the windows, if the driver starts to slouch in the driver's seat -- all of these will indicate to the car that the driver may be fatigued, and the car will start to send the alerts. This technology is a few years away - but if it works and saves lives - that will be great.

-Z-man.

Could use a camera on the driver's face and watch for closed eyes. If both eyes closed for more than 3 seconds, sound alert. Not sure how to deal w/ sunglasses. Similarly could watch head tilt.