I knew someone who was once woken by the sound of traffic cones bouncing over the bonnet of his car. He had fallen asleep at the wheel for a second on the motorway and luckily veered into a line of cones rather than another driver. What an escape that was! He arrived at my house having been escorted the rest of the way by the police!
On some roads and motorways reports show as much as 20 percent of accidents result from tired drivers. These crashes often cause fatalities because they tend to be quite high-speed collisions into the back of other vehicles or into the side of the road. Long distance driving and driving at early or late times of the day is a common factor in these reports. Driving takes constant levels of concentration which, in itself, can be tiring after a while; this combined with sleep deprivation can be extremely dangerous.
It's such an easy thing to do though; I've found myself on a couple of occasions having to concentrate really hard on staying alert which, of course, should be a clear sign to pull over but the stubborn persistence to remain on course is often too prevalent. We regularly place an illogical faith in such circumstances, displacing common sense with an irrational optimism and "it'll be ok" attitude.
I'd be the first person to admit such a mistake. I like to believe I can look upon most situations with a degree of diplomatic wisdom and logical thinking, but I know when I've found myself in a situation I have often been guilty of discarding my own advice and adopting the kind of trust in fate that seldom works out as hoped. "I'll be fine, it's only two more junctions and then I'm home." Yet it's so easy to roll your eyes at someone else's decision to do the same if it results in an accident. Very hypocritical!
But it's not just your own life you are placing in the hands of fate in the above example. Because you are on a road populated with other drivers, you are also risking their lives by continuing to drive while tired. Now that is a serious offense, and maybe one of few situations when people are so readily prepared to disregard the endangerment to others they are causing.
Maybe the answer lies in intermittent electric shocks from the driver's seat or a liberal distribution of klaxons, along some roads, emitting a blast of sobering noise for motorists. Or perhaps a good (miraculous) piece of advertising to instill a better attitude towards driving when tired. I'll ask my magic 8 ball...
