Driver caught snoring at signal!!

[Alton]

Time: 0450 hrs. Place: X road to Shamshabad Airport.
Following a Black Chevy Tavera from Airport to City in my MJD.
Road mostly empty ,cruising @ 70 KMPH for 9 Km. On approaching the X road, traffic increases across the lanes and slows down to a stop. Follow the Chevy to the left lane with indicator flashing.
After 5 mins , I see vehicles going on left lane. Start my engine and wait for Chevy to follow suit but it doesn’t.
Cars behind me honk, I too sound it a couple of times. No response. I look through the tail gate window and find only one head at the driver side. I crawled up too close to even take a right turn. Thinking the vehicle might be stalled,put on my hazard lights,get out ,signal the car behind me and walk upto the driver side.
And, I find him leaned to the window, right elbow resting on the window sill, with his right palm under his chin.This guy was SNORING ! and I could hear it quite clearly standing just outside the window.
I shake him up, “Hey Babu ,kya kar rahe ho?! So raha hai kya? Gaadi road se hata ke so jao na! “
He wakes up with a jolt, eyes red and speech slurred and replies” Sorry Sir, bahut thak gaya tha”
I ask him” Kahan jana hai apko?” ‘ Bus yahein ,vho corner petrol pump thak ‘ pointing to the pump just after the left turn. Mentioning that I was behind him all the way, I shout at him that he should have stopped at the airport itself if he was too tired, instead of driving at this hour.
By now, I see a couple of other drivers behind me start walking towards me thumping their doors shut. Everyone pitches in shouting at him, some of them with choicest abuses.
One of them urges them to stop, tells the Chevy driver to pull over to left and calls out to start moving.
Walking back, I hear chuckles and loud laughs from around.
Driving off, I hear a couple of them asking him to rest at the pump on the left. One of them offering a bottle of Water……

[abhinav.gupta88]

Thats pretty amusing.

On a serious note , this can be very dangerous .
Thank god it happened while the car was stationary and not while moving , otherwise no one can imagine what could have happened.

[sukiwa]

Thank God that signal & that crossroad. Imagine what would have happened if that driver had continued to drive in that sleepy state.

Wonder why cab owners continue to drive their drivers for extra shifts/working hours. Cab drivers are made to comply with it risking not only their own life but also of co-passengers and others on road /road-side.

[lambuhere1]

Good Part is that the driver has stopped the vehicle and sleeping. In Bangalore, you can see the driving sleeping with open eyes, esp the call center cabs / private cabs

I have seen it a couple of times on Marathahalli airport road and had close brushes with them one/twice, just enough time to get my vehicle away from their path

Once I saw a BMTC driver snoring along on cubbon road. Think about it

Now I am really careful about these vehicles when I drive around in the night or early mornings. Always keep my eyes on the RVMS and ofcourse on the front of the road

[yzfrj]

Good one.

Thanks god that he stopped and slept instead of driving in his sleep.

[speedzak]

My god!
Dangerous. Very dangerous!

It was not just about his life, but many others' on the road also. Good that he slept while it was stopped on the signal and not while he was approaching it.

I've seen something similar in Dubai too. There was this guy in front of me in a Camry. Even after the signal turned green, he didn't move. In another 5 seconds or so.. there was as series of horns blasting out in different tones and sounds. Hooting is so rare there that he was shaken and stirred at the same time. Camry moved on.
I just prayed he reaches home in one piece.

This is what happens when people overestimate their bodies and tries to achieve more than what it can handle. Sad thing is that there are many who still think it's fine.

[planet_rocker]

Time: 11.30PM
Year: 1999
Car: White P.P.
Driver: my dad

we were coming home from my grandpa's place at SaltLake (~14kms from our home) - we had a great time at my grandpa's place - we had lots of khana-pina. dad was a bit tired at the end of the day. we left grandpa's place at around 11.20pm and was on our way back home taking the EM ByPass.

dad was cruising at 80 in his one year old PP - suddenly we found dad driving towards the extreme left lane without any reason - mom started shouting at dad.

He fell asleep while driving. thank god nothing happened to my Planet (touch wood).

[ak916]

I used to drive to work because of the same reason. Because Invariably all Cab drivers have blood red eyes in the early mornings and you can see they are closing their eyes, literally for a couple of seconds every now and then while driving.

I decided, jaan pyaari hai and have always avoided cabs since. There are cabbies who go home for only a couple of hours each day. They get about 8 hours or so of rest, in between drops and pick ups and they sleep in the cab. Very dangerous and hope companies/transport cab owners show some social responsibility to make sure these things don't happen! And yes, it is definitely within their control

[gd1418]

This incident should make all of us sit up and ponder. Life has become so stressful that one can't even have a decent sleep and rest. I really pity the plight of the driver, who just couldn't keep awake and and fell asleep at the first opportunity, not ot mention the dangers to the life and limb of self and others. In my opinion a driver's job is the most tiring and unrewarding..

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Time 9.10 AM. (That is right).
Place - Wadakkancherry railway gate (Trichur - Shornur state highway), Kerala.

Gate has opened. I am going to Trichur from Wadakkancherry. I have to keep extreme left due to vehicles coming opposite direction overtaking a stationary SUV.

As I pass the SUV (Scorp, IIRC), I find that the driver is sleeping; engine running with a/c on.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by Alton

He wakes up with a jolt, eyes red and speech slurred and replies” Sorry Sir, bahut thak gaya tha”

Understandable for an overworked driver/cabbie, though undoubtedly dangerous.

Originally Posted by Alton

I shout at him that he should have stopped at the airport itself if he was too tired, instead of driving at this hour.

Originally Posted by Alton

Everyone pitches in shouting at him, some of them with choicest abuses.

Originally Posted by Alton

Walking back, I hear chuckles and loud laughs from around.

Not so understandable because we really dont know why he had to keep driving despite being so tired, do we?

Its dangerous to do so, but shouting at a driver who is probably subject to various other pressures doesnt help. On my way back home from Dubai Intnl Airport a couple of years back, I noticed that the cabbie was nodding off - shook him and offered him the bottle of water I was carrying and kept talking to him till we got home. Found out that he had been on duty since last midnight, and it was 4.15 am when he dropped me home - thats 28.15 hours at the wheel, which is no joke. He didnt have an option...

[nitrous]

These Cab drivers apparently do 300kms per day,on average.

[Alton]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Not so understandable because we really dont know why he had to keep driving despite being so tired, do we?

Yes,.
The first thought I had when I saw this guy with those Red eyes and slurry speech was to offer him water .But I dint have any in my car.
One of the other drivers gave him a bottle.
Regrading those laughs and chuckles around ,even I too dint understand them.My mood then was to tell him clear and loud that - dont drive when you are sleepy and take rest .You may risk yours and others life too.
It was an unusual scene.

[Lukeskywalker]

Was on my way to Mangalore in an Indicab, I was sitting in the co passenger seat with wife and her colleague in the rear, as we were on the Hassan byepass, I noticed the car weaving from left to right, looked at the driver and he was barely managing to stay awake, asked him to pull over and switched places with him and he slept next to me all the way to Mangalore while I drove the cab.

[Spitfire]

Cant this be reported to the cops and have him arrested?

I am not sure about the law, but isnt this really dangerous. Forget the driver, he dosent care anyways. The charge should be equivalent to drunken driving.