GRA wrote:Nope, I didn't pull off the road the first time I felt drowsy while driving. It was summer 1987, I'd been driving over a decade, and I'd spent a long hot day at the Castle Air Force Base air show (well into triple digit temps on the apron, limited shade). I was in my Dad's new Acura Legend because my Datsun 2000 didn't have AC, and went into micro-sleep while on the freeway coming back. Woke an instant later as I started to drift out of my lane, over-corrected (over-assisted power-steering with no feel) and felt the car start to lift off its inside wheels. Got it back under control without hurting anyone or myself, pulled off at the next exit and took a nap, something I've done ever since anytime I feel drowsy while driving. Most auto accidents involve one or more of the four D's: Drunk, Drugged, Drowsy or Distracted. Anyone's right to make stupid decisions ends when they endanger others who aren't voluntary participants in their stupidity. If you're going to be late, be late. Beats being referred to as 'the late' in a premature obituary, but far worse is if you hurt anyone else on your way out the Darwin Awards door. I can't imagine a parent voluntarily choosing to drive while drowsy so they can pick up their kids and put them at higher risk as well. Would anyone say that doing so while drunk is acceptable?Durandal wrote:May I suggest you simply not get on the road? You're obviously too filled with rage, so go sit in time-out before you get back on the road.GRA wrote: You want to talk about inaction? What are you or anyone else doing choosing to drive when you're that tired, putting other people at risk? You simply have no business being on the road. It's an exercise in irresponsibility, not an excuse for relying on an admittedly inadequate self-driving system to make up for your own poor decisions. You want to take effective action? Get the hell off the road and take a nap.
As others have suggested, life. Unless you want to make the incredulous claim that you've immediately pulled off the side of the road EVERY SINGLE TIME you've felt drowsy, and you took a nap. If you do want to make that claim, I'll call you a liar. If you don't want to make that claim, then feel free to retract your prior high horse statement.
So yeah, I do have rage against people who engage in behavior they know to be dangerous and who knowingly put others at risk without their consent. I've engaged in lots of activities that have higher than average risk, and I'd strenuously object to any attempt by the government to prohibit me from choosing to do them. But the second I endanger others who haven't consented, the government has both the right and duty to stop me and impose a punishment for doing so. Maximizing personal rights also requires maximizing personal responsibility.
Great! So you admit to having gotten drowsy while driving too! That makes you a hypocrite.
I never said I was driving WHILE drowsy. I don't know when I've dozed off, until it happens. AFTER that, I have methods of dealing with it, which I'm sure most everyone else has as well. What kind of moron do you think we are to choose to start a drive, WHILE sleepy?!
I don't have the luxury of taking a nap before the drive, JUST-IN-CASE, because my level of fatigue and traffic conditions change daily. I don't go into my drive home half-asleep. I slog through ~1hr of traffic daily. Somewhere along the way, I may get tired, just like most other people, INCLUDING YOU it seems!
Would I like to live closer to shorten my commute? SURE, but that would put my wife at risk, since she works in the opposite side of home. We don't get always get to choose our circumstances.
