We have all done it at some point,the thing is,what woke you up,the cones under the chassis,someone`s house or other street or motorway furniture?I was heading towards a bridge at one time,that makes the heart beat a lot faster after that.
toby1234abc:
We have all done it at some point,the thing is,what woke you up,the cones under the chassis,someone`s house or other street or motorway furniture?I was heading towards a bridge at one time,that makes the heart beat a lot faster after that.
Err i haven’t 
Can’t say I have either. I’ve got tired, but then I pull over and have a break…
BradCarTransporter:
toby1234abc:
We have all done it at some point,the thing is,what woke you up,the cones under the chassis,someone`s house or other street or motorway furniture?I was heading towards a bridge at one time,that makes the heart beat a lot faster after that.Err i haven’t
lool
toby1234abc:
We have all done it at some point,the thing is,what woke you up,the cones under the chassis,someone`s house or other street or motorway furniture?I was heading towards a bridge at one time,that makes the heart beat a lot faster after that.
Hope you’ve got your flak jacket ready for this one Tobe.
Can’t say as I have ever fallen asleep at the wheel while moving but I have on several occasions woken from a power nap in the drivers seat, panicked, grabbed the wheel and leapt on the brakes. Only to find I was parked in a lay-by with the engine off. 
Happened to me once coming home from Italy with a load of groupage on. Left Milan at whatever silly time it was after having been up, out and about all day. Set off for the Blanc feeling knackered but that was par for the course.
Sure enough, further along the road i nodded off. What saved me was the roar of the engine through the half open drivers window. I had entered a tunnel and drifted slightly off to the right, the noise of the engine, tyres etc coming back at me off the tunnel wall woke me up and I snapped my eyes open to find the tunnel wall about a foot away from the mirror arm.
Talk about an instant adreanaline rush!! Anyway, I pulled in at the services (Ivrea??), downed a couple of industrial strength shots of black coffee, made myself have an hour on the bunk then cracked on.
With hindsight (a wonderful thing!! 
) I should have pulled up and stopped for a proper break but that wasnt the way it was done then, especially on the Italian groupage!! 
toby1234abc:
We have all done it at some point,the thing is,what woke you up,the cones under the chassis,someone`s house or other street or motorway furniture?I was heading towards a bridge at one time,that makes the heart beat a lot faster after that.
Do you think there’s a chance that you could post on here when you are about to take to the road, and what routes, times and what wagon etc? Fore-warned is for-armed etc.
I’ve nodded a few times in the past,when i used to to euro in sprinter vans usual run’s from [Preston>deeside to collect goods> Copenhagen via dover, around 1.200miles would start out around lunchtime or later, run through the night tipping in the morning used to take 18hrs,
going there wasn’t too bad, but the return journey would always get you, especially iof you wasn’t able to get sufficient kip whilst waiting to get re loaded which btw would always be later that day usually by 6-7pm
only once in a artic have i come close to killing myself and co driver, at the time i was only had a provisional C&E , it happened in France on the A26 just before the shell msa @ Rely on route to Calais co driver was sat on his perch asleep, i was driving,i shut my eyes and when i opened them the unit was only feet away from the concrete barrier in the middle,fortunately i didn’t panic i just gently steered the truck back into the 1st of the two lanes,and carried on to the service area, never again, that scarred the (zb) outta me , co driver woke just afterwards when i opened the window (noise and cold air) we had been to Italy casingo i think was the town we picked up from ,(running d manned) we where both tired and had stopped at an msa near arras ,but when we phoned in we got pushed into running out our full drive time, ended up in the truckstop at ashford instead,
Can’t ever remember falling asleep at the wheel because I was probably asleep at the time but was always lucky in having a truck fitted with auto pilot and which which knew it’s own way home. 
Never done it in a truck but I did once wake up when I drove a taxi. I was in a little village near Haworth. It took me ages to figure out where I was and how to get back to civilisation.
Coffeeholic:
Can’t say as I have ever fallen asleep at the wheel while moving but I have on several occasions woken from a power nap in the drivers seat, panicked, grabbed the wheel and leapt on the brakes. Only to find I was parked in a lay-by with the engine off.
Same here. As soon as I start biting it back big time, I know it’s then time for a power nap.
BradCarTransporter:
toby1234abc:
We have all done it at some point,the thing is,what woke you up,the cones under the chassis,someone`s house or other street or motorway furniture?I was heading towards a bridge at one time,that makes the heart beat a lot faster after that.Err i haven’t
+1 me neither
I think it depends on the type of work you’re doing. I had to give up night trunking involving longer distances/hours as I had started to struggle with it. Was coming down the M40 one night and was going to come off at Cherwell for a refreshment break. I didn’t even see the services and went right on by.
If not a wind-up then a frightening admission. I think people don’t realise how tired they are sometimes (too tired to tell) so thank god for enforced breaks.
When driving nights/mornings I sometimes nodded of, especially on my way back monday morning (Beeing awake with family all sunday, start job week at 23 sunday night and working 'til 10 monday morning…
I remember especially one trip, stopped in a lay-by, napped for about 15-20 mins, drank two red bulls but it just didn’t make it. Knowing that day driver wanted the truck I forced myself to go on. Can’t say that I’m proud of that trip and will never do it again. Scared the heck out of me…
Snudger:
If not a wind-up then a frightening admission. I think people don’t realise how tired they are sometimes (too tired to tell) so thank god for enforced breaks.
Ditto.
Another thing to consider is that sometimes a tired driver can’t pull over to have a break because of the very fact they’re tired. We’ve all been there when we’re tired at home or where ever and we can’t think straight and do something stupid?..It’s easy to say “oh he should pull over and have a break” but the chances are the driver doesn’t have the mental ability to pull over because of the fact he/she is tired. I wil admit that I’ve been in that situation before and its horrible…now though I’ll stop where ever, which more often than not is the hard shoulder, and I’ll get out the truck, do a walk around, jog on the spot, some press ups…all sorts to get the blood flowing. Although I have found that singing to songs on my “driving playlist” wakes me up almost instantly.
I think another problem with tired drivers is the companies they work for…lets face it, who wouldn’t be disciplined in some way if every now and they they had to call up their yard and say “I’ll be an hour late, I’m too tired so need a quick sleep”? All the big players say it in their inductions that its ok and they wouldn’t mind, but lets face it, they say all sorts to get you through the door. And its worse for an agency because you could be gone at the drop of a hat…and often our start times are moved so wildly it’s just impossible for us to get into any sort of sleep pattern, which makes things worse.
Yes it is a frightening admission. The rumble strip woke me up once. Fair enough you might think, but this was the rumble strip between lane 3 and the barrier.
It was 20 years ago and i was in a transit, 2.30am on the M62 between the top of Windy and the little house. Luckily the road was deserted. I was 18 years old and didn’t have the sense to stop for a nap. The job had to get done.
Valuable lesson learned.
Never fallen asleep but I know when I’m going to. Start to take longer and slower blinks and find myself fighting the steering wheel for no reason plus I start getting hot under the collar (like when you realise you have done something seriously wrong) then I know its break time, easy.
Jesus. i dont ever get anytime to sleep,let alone think about it… you no when its time to stop when you start to alicante !!! with out drugs