Spot early warning signs, Driving and managing fatigue

Spot the early warning signs.

Eyes

As the fatigue creeps up, the eyes creep down. Suddenly you are watching the white lines on the road, markings, looking at oncoming cars

Or your eyes are getting heavy, just like the hypnotist, only coming out is a real crash.

Your vision can become blurry, finding it difficult to manage passing cars, road signs and even reading instruments.

You are feeling heavy

No, Martin St James is not talking here. Your arms are heavy, your legs ache, suddenly you find yourself leaning on the door card, left leg tucked under the seat, head resting in your arm, are all crash inducing fatigue killers.

Your eyes are heavy, very heavy.

You cannot remember the last period of driving, 5 minutes, 10, 20, it doesn’t matter, so long as it doesn’t add up to 666. Crash.

Microsleeps

Microsleeps are real and the moment you realise you have had one, stop. Do not keep going, don’t give yourself targets in your driving. Stop. Even a ten-minute sleep will help, so get in the back seat, lay down, even if you don’t feel you can sleep. no point being dead on time.

Yawning

Is a massive indicator of driver fatigue,, why? Your body is trying to gain oxygen. Learn More about the science of sleep 

Lane and road positioning

Another benchmark, as your eyes are dropping, your hands are following your eyes, and the car is starting to drive from point to point.

Absolute irony in all of this is that everything your brain is doing to keep you safe, is actually accelerating the information and accelerating the fatigue. The crash is inevitable at this point.

Speed

It becomes difficult to manage speed. I once let a person drive my car, ironically we were making a documentary on road safety and where it goes wrong.

On the way back, she was claiming another car in the crew was constantly speeding up and slowing down. The longer it went on, the more vocal she was over it.

When we got to the designated rest spot, I spoke to the other driver, who had cruise control on to 110kph.

The complaining driver was quickly removed from the driver’s seat to never return for the duration of the trip.

Restlessness

You are constantly moving around, trying to get comfortable, assuming the most uncomfortable positions.

 

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