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bonebloodyidle

Falling asleep at the wheel

bonebloodyidle
15 years ago

This happened to me for the first time in 20 years of driving tonight. I regularly do 50,000km a year throughout Ireland, the UK and continental Europe, but what flummoxed me tonight was a tractor doing 30kph for 10k or more without moving over to let cars pass. This was on a national road with a 100k limit. I didn't feel tired when I joined the queue but after a few minutes the boredom really got to me. After a few kilometres it finally happened and it was only bumping over the cats eyes in the middle of the road that woke me up. But then a few hundred yards later it was my exit and I was free of the farmer and could put the hammer down. Then all tiredness disappeared as I hurtled through the lanes like my trousers were on fire. I hit every apex with complete accuracy and felt alive like never before. The odd bit of opposite lock to correct the unbalancing effect of potholes came almost naturally, the cadence braking to avoid hitting the 137 year old to**er in the 25 year old Corolla who forgot what side of the road he should drive on kicked in automatically.

And I have noticed this more and more recently. When going slow (ie too slow for the conditions) I get bored and make mistakes. This is when I am going slow because I am stuck behind a dawdler, not because I am going in a built up area where I go slow because there is a lot to take in. Then I don't get bored because there are kids going to school, blind men in Corollas and allsorts of hazards to be wary of. But on the open road with tractors and learner drivers in Fiat Puntos crawling along where there is very little hazard I can't help but to switch off.

So the point of this posting is, if it is safe and legal to get your clog down and do 120, then do 120. And if you don't feel able to do 120 then take a taxi and let the rest of us stay awake.

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