I did a lot of less than bright things when I was in college. I once overslept and missed my Art History final. One time I ate 106 chicken wings in one sitting, during an all-you-can-eat wing promotion at a bar. I even let a girl dye my hair jet black one night.
Not a good look for me.
Perhaps the dumbest thing I did in college was during my junior year. I was working as a sports writer for a newspaper at the time, and the paper asked me to go to Florida and cover the Yankees for a week during spring training. The assignment coincided with my spring break and I couldn’t wait to escape snowy New York and head to the sun and fun of Florida, while getting to report on my favorite team.
Because it was spring break I asked a couple of friends if they wanted to accompany me on the trip. Three friends said yes and we were on our way.
So far, so good.
We climbed into my Mazda 626 and we were on our way. Here comes the dumb part. For some reason, I didn’t want anyone else to drive my car. I was determined to make the whole drive myself straight through.
The trip from Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to Fort Lauderdale is 1,339 miles and takes, without traffic, about 20 hours to make. We, rather I, drove the whole way without stopping except for food and gas.
Looking back, it might have been the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. We took Interstate 95 the whole way, and by the time we reached the Florida state line I could barely keep my eyes open. With stops, the trip took about 24 hours total, and I drove every mile.
Forget drowsy driving, it was exhausted driving.
I am reminded of this story because of a new report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report states that one in 24 adults admitted to recently falling asleep while driving. Yes, you read that correctly. One in 24 people have fallen asleep while driving.
That’s a scary number. We often focus on drunk or impaired drivers, but drowsy drivers certainly can be just, if not more, dangerous.
The problem is, there is no real way to enforce, crack down, or punish, drowsy drivers. There is no way to determine how sleep deprived the driver is. There is no breathalyzer test to determine how much sleep someone has had.
It is up to the individual driver to make the realization that they are too tired to be driving. Unfortunately, many drivers, like myself in college, try to fight through it by drinking coffee.
It’s a recipe for disaster.
I know a lot of people who would never, ever drive drunk, but often times they will drive drowsy. Drowsy driving doesn’t have the social stigma that drunk driving has, but believe me, it’s just as big a problem.
Luckily I learned my lesson in college. On the drive back from Florida to New York, I let my friends drive and I slept in the back seat.
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