Do you personally know anyone who fell asleep while driving?

I have started to fall asleep while driving a few times, maybe even been asleep briefly but I didn’t leave my lane.

Driving long distances can be a bit hypnotic, and when also quite fatigued, I had no sense that I was in danger of falling asleep until it already started to happen. It was very frightening.

I’m sure it still happens as often as ever, but perhaps there’s just much more noise in all the public conversations so it doesn’t stand out.

Thank you @Zaku.

Yes. My dad, repeatedly. It happened to him from a young age. He’s one of those people who can sleep anywhere, and he’s chronically low on rest.

Yes, me. Back in college, driving home really late at night, after work — I’d nod off frequently and be blurry eyed. Then, one night, I nodded off in the fourth lane and woke up in the first lane. Scary as hell.

After that, I started sleeping at school, in my studio.

I don’t know many who have admitted to it. I drove once when very tired and I nodded off momentarily once or twice. No one in my car even noticed but it scared me and I have been careful never to drive when tired ever since.

Back in the 90’s I was working 2 full time jobs…the 2nd one was doing deliveries where I drove for 6–8 hours after working an 8 hour day. I had finished my delivery & was heading back home. I only had about a hour before I’d get home so I kept pushing even though I was tired Apparently I was more tired than I thought as I woke up & realized that I was heading into the back corner of a car. I jerked the wheel to the left & just missed hitting that car. I definitely had a guardian angel in the ca with me that night. I pulled into the next rest stop & took a quick nap & then continued on home.After that, I was more aware of how tired I was feeling & not too stubborn to pull over & rest for a bit!!!

As to why it has stopped happening…
Don’t know about where you live, but here they have added a “wake up” warning to the sides of the roads. Thy grind a design into the shoulder of the road & IF your tires hit it, it makes a really loud noise which will wake you up if you’re dozing!!!

Yes, my ex-boyfriend back in the late 80’s. He drive right through a red light and was hit in the intersection. When I tell that story, or tell the story of when my husband lived in Bogotá, Colombia the government changed last call to earlier at night (I think it was 1am) to reduce driving while sleepy, usually there is someone in the group I am talking to who has a fall asleep at the wheel story.

It almost happened to me, but I pulled off the road. I don’t even remember falling asleep it happened so fast. Next thing I knew I was waking up an hour and a half later. If I had fallen asleep I likely would have been dead and a lot of other people. It was day time on a twisty windy mountainous interstate with exits 40 miles apart.

Thank goodness no.

Just to build on @LadyMarissa comment – in Georgia, there are embedded rumble strips on each side of the highway – if you drive over them it makes an obnoxious sound that is mean to wake you up.

And on the interstate and some larger highways, in addition to painted lane markings, there are small (1”) reflectors at the end of each lane divider, that (if you drive over them) will make a clicking noise to keep you in your lane and wake you up.

We can use those reflectors in Atlanta because we don’t believe in snow plows here :-) I imagine that north of us, these reflectors would be scraped off by snow plows and have to be replaced each year.

Yes. I have come very close, to the point of waking up from rumble strips.

A friend who worked graveyard and was a straight arrow/no drinking/ no drugs fell asleep while driving. Totaled his car and broke his neck, had to wear a halo neck brace that was screwed into his cranium for two months.

My father was driving me and my mother one tie, and kept nodding off, we made him pull over and I drove the rest of the day. That was when we made him get his sleep apnea addressed.

@elbanditoroso Thank you. I know they are there but didn’t know the name of them. I figured if my sleepy little town has them that the rest of the country must have them!!! I often depend on them…NOT for falling asleep but I occasionally drift to the right just a little & those dang things remind me to move back to the left without having to jerk my steering wheel & losing control of my car. NOT my preferred way to drive; however, it’s still very effective!!!

<——This guy! In the early 1970s..

I was driving my Plymouth Barracuda from Troy to Long Island on the New York State Thruway.
I used to drive at night, midnight to 4 am, to avoid traffic. I was driving southbound and fell asleep drifted across the median, came up on the northbound side and spun around facing north in the right hand soft shoulder. I was so confused I didn’t know if I was heading north or south.
I was fortunate there were no guard rails, no damage to my car and there were no other cars anywhere to be seen.
Once I figured out what had happened I drove back across the median and continued on my way. A lot smarter!

I fell asleep in my old van once, and crashed into the woods. Luckily, there were no big trees around. It was on a long dirt road, and I had been slapping myself to stay awake. Ironically, after I crashed, I was WIDE awake. It was about 3AM, and I had just worked a 13 hour shift…

I do know two people who died, from falling asleep driving. Both, were on long, dark, country roads.

Yeah, they put in rumble strips here several years ago. It not only wakes sleeping drivers up, it alerts inattentive drivers to the fact that they’ve strayed out of their lane.

I’ve gotten really sleepy but not where I was actually falling asleep. I’m not usually driving late at night but last holiday season I went with a friend and my daughter to Williamsburg VA, which is about an 8 to 10 hour ride. It was around 1 in the morning and I was starting to drift off, so then my friend drove. She’s more of a night owl. We were close to our destination at that point. If she were not in the car with me, I’d have had to open the windows or get out and take a little walk or have some coffee or something.

Yes and his daughter was killed in the crash which took place.

Yeah, me I was going for over thirty hours and being pushed like hell by my then dispatcherI didn’t crash the truck but was all over the highway getting it back under control I called the dispatcher and told him to go to hell and went into the bunk for 9 hours.

Now a days I totally go by the law and hide nothing so it never happened again.

30 hours….Jesus.

Dispatchers, and trucking companies still push drivers to this day, even though highly illegal but inexperienced drivers scared for their job still play into it.
Remember that the next time you see someone cut off a transport driver think hol long has he been at it, now ELD’s are slowing that down but drivers are still getting pushed.

Yes – my son (early 20s). He since discovered that one of his food sensitivities (corn) makes him unbearably drowsy. He hasn’t had trouble since cutting corn out of his diet.

I have the same problem but I don’t drive as much.

You’d be surprised all of the foods/dishes that contain hidden corn/corn starch/corn syrup.

In 2001, was in a van with my Dad’s friend driving at night. Was tired myself but not too tired not to notice his eyes were closed and we were starting to drift to the side of the road.

Around 2007…my friend and his wife were waiting for green light at a intersection and got hit from behind by a truck driver who fell asleep. Their car flew like a bowling pin and wrecked beyond repair. My friend and the wife survived. They believe they owe their lives to their car which was a BMW.