Sleepiness and Driving...

[Bjornboy81]

Saturday night, well Sunday morning acutally at 4 am, I was coming home from a friends house after a full day of drinking and partying. After I dropped him off I was driving alone and all of a sudden I got really tired. I stopped off at McDonalds, got something to eat to wake up which i thought helped until I got about 300 yards down the road and blinked...well it felt like I blinked but the next thing i remember is a sound of a crash which woke me up pretty fast. I slide (without a wheel) to a stop off on the shoulder. I had fallen asleep for just a second and clipped another Grand am!! The other car was stopped (I think) at a red light. A state Trooper was at the cross street and saw the sparks when it happened. He gave me a breathalizer and I blew a .05 something...which is under the limit, but still enough that he could have given me a "driving while impaired" ticket and taken my ass to jail, but he didn't. Me and the other guy were both fine, so he gave me a careless driving ticket. Then the worse part...had to call the parents at 5 am for a ride home! I'll post pics when i get them off my camera.

But lesson learned, the hard way, it's better to just stop and sleep in your car then try to make it home. I'm just glad it wasn't worse.

[tdub4life]

Oh man... you got off lucky. So many times have I seen people get killed for falling asleep at the wheel. So you should be happy :)

That sucks though... definitely heed that advice ;)

[Gigante]

I feel you man, except i didnt get of so easily. Atleast both of you guys were ok

[Bjornboy81]

Here are some pics of the car...so sad...

[Bjornboy81]

another...

[Bjornboy81]

last one.

[30thAnnGAGT]

Man that absolutely bites! Sorry to hear that!

Yep, gotta stop if you get tired. Even a 20 minute snooze makes all the difference. Glad you're ok though. That's the important part.

[Silver99SE]

Oh that's sickening. How much was the ticket? Is your insurance going to cover the cars?

[Bjornboy81]

I'm not sure how much the ticket will be, I have to make a court date. I'm going see if the judge will drop it down to one or two points instead of three.

I'm waiting on someone from AAA to inspect the car to see if they'll fix it or if it's totalled (i doubt it is).

[30thAnnGAGT]

That's not totalled!! :) :)

[Bjornboy81]

I don't think so either, but a guy at my work here said don't get your hopes up :roll2: damn pestamist!

[ccarr8705]

I had almost the same damage for my first wreck except without the tire falling off. For me the hood, fender, headlight assembly, front bumper foglight all came to just over $2K. So with the wheel and stuff broke on yours you might be surprised at what might total a car.

[TheNewLMHDesign]

If the car is totaled, are you going to get it back and part it? If so, i know this is not the right time, but i'll take the engine off your hands, as well as the tranny.

[Gimli]

Originally posted by Bjornboy81
But lesson learned, the hard way, it's better to just stop and sleep in your car then try to make it home. I'm just glad it wasn't worse.

:agree:

I didn't learn the hard way but whenever I feel tired I pull over and take a nap. No matter where you're going you're gonna be going to sleep anyway. Might as well take a nap before you kill yourself and others...

[Duster]

Wow man your lucky coming out of that situation in one piece! I read the title and it already sent shivers up my spine!

[Bjornboy81]

Originally posted by TheNewLMHDesign
If the car is totaled, are you going to get it back and part it? If so, i know this is not the right time, but i'll take the engine off your hands, as well as the tranny.

vulture! Let the thing die first!!!! j/k...I'll let you know.

[zomb]

aye... shux..

My side-clip cracked and bent my strut. It's too rusted to take the bolts off to fix otherwise it would be fixed by now. I could do it myself and have the parts but too much rust.. yeah, so.. I'm going to go walk to work as usual. I can't take this any longer. :(

[Bjornboy81]

Originally posted by zomb
aye... shux..

My side-clip cracked and bent my strut. It's too rusted to take the bolts off to fix otherwise it would be fixed by now. I could do it myself and have the parts but too much rust.. yeah, so.. I'm going to go walk to work as usual. I can't take this any longer. :(

:wtf:

[Big Joe]

dam man looks like quite a bit of damage u did there !! Im glad everyone is ok

[30thAnnGAGT]

Originally posted by TheNewLMHDesign
If the car is totaled, are you going to get it back and part it? If so, i know this is not the right time, but i'll take the engine off your hands, as well as the tranny.

I'm thinking if his insurance company totals it out, they won't just give him the car to part out. He'd have to buy it back from his insurance company.

[Jordon'sGrandAm]

wow

[neo95]

Originally posted by Bjornboy81
I'm not sure how much the ticket will be, I have to make a court date. I'm going see if the judge will drop it down to one or two points instead of three.

I'm waiting on someone from AAA to inspect the car to see if they'll fix it or if it's totalled (i doubt it is).

I had a reckless driving ticket and it was about $750. There was no other cars involved, I just spun out and hit a curb

[Bjornboy81]

This is careless driving...just found out that it's $230, not to bad. It's really the points I'm concerned about

[LoneRangers15]

It's interesting that i just saw this. I was driving home from seeing the girl I know and I was doing about 60 in a 55 and felt perfectly fine. This was on a highway with one lane going each way. The next thing I knew I was going 90 and was in the opposite lane of traffic. Luckily it was about 11 PM and I was the only car on the road. Needless to say, I was very scared.

[Bjornboy81]

Originally posted by LoneRangers15
It's interesting that i just saw this. I was driving home from seeing the girl I know and I was doing about 60 in a 55 and felt perfectly fine. This was on a highway with one lane going each way. The next thing I knew I was going 90 and was in the opposite lane of traffic. Luckily it was about 11 PM and I was the only car on the road. Needless to say, I was very scared. And I thought I was lucky!

Just got the estimate from the repair shop....$3,770!!! :eek:
Of course not out of my pocket, but that still sets a personal best for highest bill from an accident (none of which were my fault except this one, fyi ;) ). Sorry guys, no parts for sale.

[Pacman]

ouch. good thing you two are ok

[lookitstony]

man.. ya ive dozed off 2x before... without knowing it and luckily woke up when my car went over the line and was hitting the reflector in the road... i need to get a little egg timer so i can set it for small naps... but i deffinately pull over now... the last 2 times were way to scary.

[Bjornboy81]

Well, found out today that the car is totalled :mad:
I gotta go monday and take out everything I can (stereo, CAI). So I'm gonna see how much I can buy it back for, and possible sell parts...the only problem is, i don't have a place to strip it down. So anyone that wants the engine, tranny (if still ok) and anything else, let me know and we might be able to work something out. I'm still gonna try and challenge it.

[Gigante]

I had to do the same thing when i found out my car was totalled. I had just put in subs and an amp. I was all proud of myself and then i did something stupid. It sucks going and seeing your car like that when you liked it so much.

[Dragonwings]

That sucks. I'm glad everyone made it out okay. Here's a couple tips I picked up.

Couple Tips for those that get tired:

1) For those that eat sunflower seeds by biting off the covers inside their mouths, 8 times out of 10, this keeps me wide awake for some reason if I'm tired from just driving. I usually just stop at a store, buy a bag and get a plastic cup to spit the seed casings into.
2) A guy I used to know would just stop and buy a cup of hot coffee. However, he wouldn't drink it. He would just hold it in his hand above his lap. Dozing off meant an instant wake up call in your lap. I don't recommend this, but it worked for him.


By far the best method is to just pull over and take a power nap. 15-20 min for me and I'm usually wide awake.

Also, taking a long blink and opening your eyes to find that you're about 5 feet away from a boat propeller and gaining sends enough adrenaline through you to completely wake you up. The drawback is that you will soil your pants.

Good luck with everything!

[ecko70]

chewing gum works for me

[Bjornboy81]

Well I found another Grand Am! I'm picking it up tomorrow, and will post pics when I get a chance. It's a 2001 GAGT1 75th Anniversary Edition! Silver with black leather interior, and has only 16K miles on it!...Mint condition too!

[jds_truck]

bet any money it will be dahm close to right off

[Bjornboy81]

Update

I went to court today for the careless driving ticket...the cop didn't show up so it was dismissed!!!! yay!!!:D
The insurance company also gave me the money for the car...$9,997. That's better then i thought i would've gotten. So all-and-all I made out pretty decent.