Falling asleep at the wheel

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Sun 11 May 2025 11:03
Falling asleep at the wheel - Random

A reminder to us all regarding the danger of falling asleep at the wheel.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1zUUtCsCWI

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Sun 11 May 2025 11:20
Falling asleep at the wheel - Orb>>.

Possibly guilty as charged.

A friend a couple of weeks ago was driving us early morning to London and when i said you have just missed the J28 turn onto the M23 said he thought we still hadn't passed the A130 Basidon/Southend road.

Told him i'd drive us to our destination in London, but to be fair I only noticed as we were passing the off slip of the A12.

Tired bad nights sleep, woke up early all a recipe for disaster but not this time.

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Sun 11 May 2025 13:02
Falling asleep at the wheel - focussed
I fell asleep at the wheel at night on the M1.
It was early 1970's, I was a service engineer driving all over the UK, working late night's/early mornings on production machines.
Driving back home at 2.30 am-ish, the southbound M1 was deserted at night in those days.
I remember it happening like I was watching a film of the road ahead, then the approaching overpass kind of jumped toward me like there was a section missing from the film, I obviously dropped off for a few seconds and thankfully woke up.
Very scary.
An older aquantance shared a tip, if you feel yourself getting drowsy, lick a finger and rub your finger over your eyelids - keep repeating with the dash ventilation blowing at your face - it works.
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Sun 11 May 2025 16:25
Falling asleep at the wheel - movilogo

This is where Lane Departure Warning and/or Lane Keeping Assist can help.

Adaptive Cruise Control can also help to slow the car down and blare some bongs to keep you awake.

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Sun 11 May 2025 17:03
Falling asleep at the wheel - Orb>>.

This is where Lane Departure Warning and/or Lane Keeping Assist can help.

Adaptive Cruise Control can also help to slow the car down and blare some bongs to keep you awake.

I keep lane departure warning on myself also emergency brake assist.

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Sun 11 May 2025 17:19
Falling asleep at the wheel - Steveieb

There is a stretch of the M6 near Sandbach which is straight, undulating and has no reference points.

It’s known as the “ Bermuda Triangle “ because its well know for accidents involving drivers nodding off.

Luckily for me driving a worn out Mercedes van with no aircon on a blistering hot day . A recipe for nodding off but luckily the Council had installed rumble strips on the edge of the nearside lane which gave me a rude awakening!

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Sun 11 May 2025 17:46
Falling asleep at the wheel - gordonbennet

Pre program mutiple DAB radio stations, soon as adverts or (what they want you to believe) news comes on switch to another channel, suggest not to tune into the state broadcaster the least it will do is send you straight to sleep.

My personal pre sets are, Virgin, Virgin Anthems, Magic, Smooth, Smooth 80's, Absolute 80's, Abs 70's Abs 90;s Abs noughties, Heart 80's, Radio X, Gold, and couple more i can't recall, seldom listen to either Virgin Channel often because they nearly always cut the best songs of all time short, eg Bat out of Hell and the instrumental wonder at the end of Layla.


Radio X Classic Rock doesn't broadcast news or ads at the same time as the others nor generally does Smooth 80's.

My favourite radio station was Union Jack, which sadly closed down.

Also nice to listen to the rumble of a big Diesel if you've kept one despite all the influencing against.

Something else, keep your windows and mirrors spotlessly clean, strange as it sounds being able to see clearly and reduce glare from both sun and lights helps, because clean glass doesn't cause light scatter.

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Mon 12 May 2025 09:23
Falling asleep at the wheel - craig-pd130
I fell asleep at the wheel at night on the M1.

Similarly, mid-90s, heading home on the M1 after 5 hours of driving. We'd just had our first child, so we were somewhat behind in our sleep.

The motorway wasn't too busy, luckily. I remember I was in lane 1, then a blank. The next thing I remember is some sort of warning voice SCREAMING in my mind, literally like Fay Wray being sat in the passenger seat. This snapped me back to consciousness to find that I was on the hard shoulder and heading towards a bridge structure at 70+mph. Luckily, the angle of approach was gentle and I was able to course-correct and get back on the main carriageway.

I was shaking from the adrenaline for a long time afterwards. To this day, I don't know where that warning voice came from, but there's no question that it saved me from a very messy crash.

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Mon 12 May 2025 09:50
Falling asleep at the wheel - Andrew-T
I fell asleep at the wheel at night on the M1.

To this day, I don't know where that warning voice came from, but there's no question that it saved me from a very messy crash.

From the start of your tale I expected you to say that the screaming came from SWMBO ? :-)

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Sun 11 May 2025 17:33
Falling asleep at the wheel - Will deBeast

A chap fell asleep driving the car behind mine on the M40.

I tried everything I could to alert him. But had to switch to helping keep other traffic away from him and watch in horror as he bounced off the central reservation. It jolted him awake, and he was able to make it to the next services.

Perhaps when all cars have emergency braking/collision avoidance, it might be possible to gradually slow such a vehicle. Assuming the driver hasn't switched it off!

Edited by Will deBeast on 11/05/2025 at 17:40

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Sun 11 May 2025 19:23
Falling asleep at the wheel - Simoncelli58

I'm pretty sure my last Merc had a camera on my eyes, to observe my state of awareness!

My present Merc just shows me a cup of coffee, very regularly, when it's poor light, to remind me to take a break!

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Sun 11 May 2025 19:47
Falling asleep at the wheel - Orb>>.

I'm pretty sure my last Merc had a camera on my eyes, to observe my state of awareness!

My present Merc just shows me a cup of coffee, very regularly, when it's poor light, to remind me to take a break!

The Korando also gives me a coffee cup sign and I have to press the menu button on the right of the steering wheel controls to cancel it.

I also change stations as soon as adverts come on, open windows a bit, and don't keep the car too warm at night.

When i travel early morning it is only after i have woken up naturally...

my longest journeys nowadays are about 2 hours to 2 and a half ( Colchester Dover) and vice versa. The exception a few months back was to Chester with a pit stop M6 Corley services.

Edited by Orb>>. on 11/05/2025 at 19:48

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Sun 11 May 2025 21:42
Falling asleep at the wheel - RT

My VW Touareg used to show me a cup of coffee - but it's logic seemed to be based on steering input - so it usually false alarmed on long strainght motorway run with little traffic - so I turned it off!

Whilst I'll admit to dozing off when I was much younger, experience has taught me to stop as soon as I feel tired and close my eyes for 5 minutes, it works wonders.

Last year I drove from Thurso / Dunnet Head / John O'Groats to Land's End / Lizard Point / Helston in an 18 hour day - stopped every couple of hours for a few minutes shut eye - didn't feel tired at all.

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Mon 12 May 2025 08:27
Falling asleep at the wheel - movilogo

had a camera on my eyes, to observe my state of awareness!

Even though my car does not have a camera to observe my eyes, if it detects sway it pops coffee symbol ? with a message to take a break.

Even without sway it shows this after 2 hours of continuous driving.

PS: Emojis do not display correctly in this forum.

Edited by movilogo on 12/05/2025 at 08:27

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Mon 12 May 2025 11:41
Falling asleep at the wheel - gordonbennet

Few years ago, i was still driving car transporters...how time flies its some 17 years since i packed that game in...anyway M6 just south of Coventry foreign truck i'm overtaking is obviously falling asleep and drifting right, didn't want to brake because if he connected with my cab only it would have been carnage, as he drifted further over i'm restricfed how much room i can give him due to car in 3rd lane, sorry chap in Astra, wonder if you ever realised why i had to nab some of your lane or wondered if i was blasting the horn at you..

Gave the chap an almightly blast on the horn, fortunately Scania 4 series horns were pretty decent, but as he awoke his understandable overreaction swinging back luckily didn't result in anything other than something probably quite spectular for those behind, driver realised and gave a cheery wave.

As always in these situations everything goes into slow motion as adrenalin kicks in.

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Tue 13 May 2025 10:36
Falling asleep at the wheel - davecooper

Although not a great fan of much of the "intrusive" safety tech, this is one area where the likes of lane departure warning, autonomous braking and driver alertness monitoring etc can all be possible life savers.

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Tue 13 May 2025 11:30
Falling asleep at the wheel - Orb>>.

The lane departure warning, autonomous braking and driver alertness monitoring etc can all be possible life savers.

And happy with all three, the driver alert cannot be turned off but the other two can in the dasboard settings and don't need to be reset each time, but I leave them on.

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