BRAKE - now everyone is asleep at the wheel.

[rohrl]

I'll quite happily slag off BRAKE for making silly alarmist statements about speed in general but I can't see the harm in this.

I've fallen asleep at the wheel many years ago driving in France and only woke up when I went straight over a grassy roundabout. My Grandmother rolled a car falling asleep. Also in France. Actually maybe it's France that's the problem after all.

[supersingle]

Lots of falling asleep accidents on the M4 around Swindon. It seems that meer proximity to Swindon is enough to bore folk to death.

Since the massive enforcement of speed limits of the past decade I find having a drink or two before a journey makes me much more relaxed and less likely to speed. The flip side is that it can make me drowsy, but at least I'm drowsy with a clean licence!

Unintended consequences. I st 'em!

[carinaman]

What are the chances of a sleeping driver clipping the NS rear corner of this camera van and shunting it across the grass strip into oncoming traffic:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[Funkateer]

Guybrush said:

Raising speed limits would help.

Indeed. Nothing worse than the soporific effect of an artificially low limit mile after mile after mile.

[vikingaero]

Funkateer said:

Guybrush said:

Raising speed limits would help.

Indeed. Nothing worse than the soporific effect of an artificially low limit mile after mile after mile.

Can you imagine the horror on their faces at the Brake office when they dissect our posts? Raising the speed limits?! Quelle horreur! It must be like releasing Satan.

There's an explanation for all this. A press officer on too much cocaine who thinks that seeding the media for Brake nonsence is the most important thing in the world. I'm all for a safer world but Im realistic that travel involves a danger threshold in levels of death and injury that we'll never fall below.

[mybrainhurts]

Funkateer said:

Guybrush said:

Raising speed limits would help.

Indeed. Nothing worse than the soporific effect of an artificially low limit mile after mile after mile.

Been saying that for years.

The first time I drove the length of the M1 after the introduction of the NSL, I became drowsy about half way down. This never happened when I held 100+mph where possible and, yes, there was congestion in places even then.

The Transport Research Laboratory reckons 20% of injury accidents involve fatigue and low speed limits cause fatigue. Bit of a safety contradiction there.

[Foppo]

mybrainhurts said:

Been saying that for years.

The first time I drove the length of the M1 after the introduction of the NSL, I became drowsy about half way down. This never happened when I held 100+mph where possible and, yes, there was congestion in places even then.

The Transport Research Laboratory reckons 20% of injury accidents involve fatigue and low speed limits cause fatigue. Bit of a safety contradiction there.

I won't drive at a steady 55 60 mph when on a clear motorway.I used to have to in the VW Beetle top speed 70mph.I tend to be more alert driving faster rather be alive than saving a few pounds on fuel.

[ManOpener]

Their comments on the BBC article on the M40 pub are hilarious. Basically "pubs are bad because ALL DRIVERS ARE WEAK, SPINELESS CHARACTER MERELY A BLINK AWAY FROM GETTING UTTERLY st-FACED AND CAUSING MOTORWAY CARNAGE". Utter bunch of deluded morons.

I really wish organisations like the BBC wouldn't give them the time of day. Letting BRAKE express their opinion on road safety matter is the logical equivalent of having al-Qaeda on to talk about religious tolerance.

[mybrainhurts]

Bunch of control freaks and dangerous with it.

[IntriguedUser]

I've 'nodded' off at the wheel before, you only notice when the last frame you saw doesn't match with the new frame you see, as in you've travelled way to far for it to have been a few seconds.. pretty dangerous

[mike-r]

Cruise control solves this problem.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

IntriguedUser said:

I've 'nodded' off at the wheel before, you only notice when the last frame you saw doesn't match with the new frame you see, as in you've travelled way to far for it to have been a few seconds.. pretty dangerous

I used to commute 100 miles each way to work, four nights a week. Wasn't too bad, leaving the house at 7:30pm to get to work for 9, then leave at 06:00 and get home circa half seven. Not much traffic on fairly deserted roads.

However, sometimes after a long night, I would recognise tiredness on the way home in the morning. I was very good at pulling over before it ever became a problem, and having a quick kip.

However, on several occasions, I have woken up with a start, scared witless!!!

Trouble was, if I stopped in a layby, it was invaribly cold outside - so I would leave the engine running with the heater pumping out. Then I would recline the seat a bit, and drop off.

Then quite often, I guess my brain would suddenly realise it had dropped off, and hear / feel the running engine, and I would suddenly wake with a start - grabbing the steering wheel like a mentalist, thinking I was actually driving along!!!

Wasn't good for the nerves when that happened Still, always nice to then realise that I was actually parked safely in a layby!

[Nigel Worc's]

Back in 2008 I discovered I had obstructive sleep apnoea.

I "woke up" in a crowd, in a lot of pain.

You'd have been quite astonished at the damage I had caused.

Brake are generally a bunch of morons, some of the subjects they cover however, are quite serious.

[Who me ?]

sebhaque said:

Why would you drive if you were awake or asleep? It's far too dangerous.

(I've driven tired before. Typically I'm not falling asleep at the wheel but I'm a little grumpy because it's 6:15am and I'm on my way to work. Typically it seems the Brake loonies are either jobless mothers or simply jobless/retired

So -Maybe one of them might just dash of to the lab and design a "Driver dropping off camera". It might work better in curing the UK road safety record than speed cameras .Then again, I haven't seen BRAKE coMe up with a tail gait (as in I'll sit on your back bumper and threaten you if you DON'T DRIVE FASTER) CAMERA or method of detecting this. We did have a surefire way of prevention- but Brake never liked that as it relied on a non robot method.

[Chicane-UK]

Can't deny after years of not understanding how people can get into this situation, it's nearly caught me out a few times in recent years, and in hindsight was rather foolish both times.

Once after a lot of driving in Germany (after a heavy night the night before) then catching a ferry back home - and another after a flight back from the States when I ended up being awake for over 24 hours - I was absolutely shattered! Both times I felt the extremely heavy eyelids (and even closed them once or twice) but pressed on because I was desperate to just get home to my own bed and didn't want to be napping in a lay-by on the M40 or A14!

Loud music, and the window open made sod all difference, but I found pinching myself really woke me up! In future I'll pull in for a power nap - just not worth the risk again.