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Asleep At The Wheel (Read Important)
Just wanted to post this message to help people to realise just how easy it is to fall asleep after a long days work and crash your pride and joy.
This is a serious note and if only one person changes their mind about risking a long drive after a long days/weeks work then I'll be pleased. My mates son crashed his EP82 on the M5 near to Cheltenham last year. It was 23.30 at night and he had called home about an hour before to say that he was on track to arrive at about 01.00. He was returning home for his birthday on the Saturday and it was this reason that he was keen to travel straight after work that Friday. He was working near to Norwich and we live near to Plymouth. A journey which on a good run takes about 6 hours. He had stopped twice on route and had planned to stop again about 20 miles from where he crashed. he was over tired because for the previous 6 months had been putting in 12 hour days for often 7 days a week to pay for the restoration of his car. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured which when looking at the damage is a miracle. Also no other car was involved. However when questioned by the police (and tested etc which proved negative) he was honest to say that he thought he had fallen asleep. this proved to be a chargeable offence and as a consequence he was later found guilty and fined £350.00 with 5 points. Had he killed someone as was the case just recently he would have probably gone to prison. However, had he been economical with the truth and said that an animal had run out in front of the car and in swerving to aviod it caused the car to crash, the police would no doubt have difficulty proving it one way or the other. As most officer's will admit the statistics are hard to prove because a lot of cases end up dead. Insurance wise, unless you have an aggreed value policy stipulated with a mileage limit at the time of taking out the policy, and you maintain that periodically, the insurers will only ever pay out the book price at the time of the accident even if you provide receipts etc.........protected no claims are then clawed back when you next insure because you had a claim and surprisingly the rates will have gone up due to inflation!! Add together all the inconvenience of getting another car etc it JUST IS NOT WORTH TAKING THE RISK. Please please have a good rest BEFORE DRIVING, better to wake up very early the next day and set off. |
I always make sure I am rested before i get on my bicycle
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Red Bull, sorted :)
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Have a break, have a kit-kat :)
and a double espresso. |
Good point.
Les |
Liking the blue. It's a nice touch ;)
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Too true/blue.
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Aaaaaggghhh, blue, I'm going blind, infract infract, infract .......... just joking..
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Coming back from Les Arcs... 2am on the Auto-route, driving my mate's Audi estate with 3 asleep people on board... started feeling tired and even though I recognised the signs I descided to push on to the next services... big mistake!... 5 mins later..I'm quite happily driving along.. with my eyes shut...but my brain is telling me they are open....neadless to say.. I hit the armco... luckly I had slowed down to about 30mph while in this semi sleep.. and the damage was cosmetic... but still... We were all very lucky..and I do not carry on driving now if I feel tired.
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Risks are worth taking....... if you are not living on the edge then you are taking up too much space!!!
Of course, that is a joke |
Completely agree but unfortunatley it sometimes unavoidable.
I've been driving the same 33 mile route to and from work for over 10 years. My working day can range from 7-14 hours dependant on workload. Couple that with having a young family and the unavoidable broken sleep that comes with it and it make for one regularly overtired puppy! Redbull is only to be drunk with Vodka so that's a non-starter. I go with a bottle of lucozade on each trip! :thumb: |
I discovered that the best way around this is to pull over in a services, sleep for 20-40 minutes get 2-3 cans of redbull sink them then drive on. 30 minutes sleep followed by a ten minute wait to let the red bull kick in is usually enough to help finish the journey wide awake. The risk is killing yourself or an innocent person in the vicinity and it really is not worth it for the sale of half hour extra on the journey time.
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Loathe as I am to post on this thread, its better to drink the caffeine drink and then have a sleep. A 15 - 20 minute nap will make a massive difference and you can get that in before the caffeine gets into your system and takes effect.
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I find that a combo of speed and cocaine keeps me awake just fine :D
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rofl
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Try NW to Cornwall non stop via London (set out at about 5am and arrived in Cornwall at about 5pm) then on arrival being called back to London on the spot, which took us till about midnight, then having to return back to Cornwall straight away, ended up getting to bed at about 04:00, so 23 hours on the road (just to add there were 2 of us driving but we had to both be awake!). Needless to say I was fubard, then we were up at 6am, so 2 hours sleep to drive back to the NW... thats a good 1500 miles in total!
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tips to beat tiredness....
Be cold - turn the heating off, open a window etc. If you are freezing, you are unlikely to be sleepy. Need a pee - drink loads, so that you are busting for a slash. You cant fall asleep like that. Drive faster - A quick burst up to very high speeds gets the adrenalin pumping and wakes you right up. talk to someone - having a conversation makes you concentrate and you are unlikely to fall asleep. Even talking aloud to yourself will help. Cant beat having a 20 minute snooze though. Best to stop the car first, generally. |
A less monotonous route helps enormously: get off motorways and dual carriageways where you can.
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i have to stop half way on my journey home from work after a 12 hour shift.
on a more personal note i lost a freind id known since childhood to this. he has just finished a 6 month tour of iraq and was driving home from germany when he left the m1 and hit a lamp post killing him and his passenger :( |
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