Driver Fatigue

[PreOtter]

I’ve always had droopy eyelids and over a year ago I asked my optometrist about having surgery on my upper eyelids. I was tested to see if I qualified, and one of the questions asked was if I grew tired holding my eyelids open. I thought that was stupid... they’re pretty light. After the surgery, my peripheral vision was much better, as expected, but what really surprised me was that I could drive much longer without getting tired. I guess it wasn’t such a stupid question.

Not all drivers have droopy eyelids, but not one of us is getting any younger, and we all need to have our vision checked fairly often. So making sure you have the most comfortable and stressless vision could help. Do you have the best eyeglasses or correction for driving conditions, and do you have the right sunglasses for different light conditions?

[H Steinhoff]

At age 82, fatigue gets to be a big factor. Besides just trying to keep that big box on the road, is the challenge of all those pot holes, rough pavement, and bridge joints. My wife have a bad back and feels every jolt. On some bad 4-lane roads I drive in the left lane when nobody is behind me and no fuzz is in sight. On 2-lane roads I may drive on the white line or the yellow line when no opposing traffic is in sight, whatever is smoother. Probably the biggest fatigue factor is getting home and spending 3 hours unloading the stuff we need in the house.

[Captn John]

Originally Posted by H Steinhoff

At age 82, fatigue gets to be a big factor. Besides just trying to keep that big box on the road, is the challenge of all those pot holes, rough pavement, and bridge joints. My wife have a bad back and feels every jolt. On some bad 4-lane roads I drive in the left lane when nobody is behind me and no fuzz is in sight. On 2-lane roads I may drive on the white line or the yellow line when no opposing traffic is in sight, whatever is smoother. Probably the biggest fatigue factor is getting home and spending 3 hours unloading the stuff we need in the house.

We have a stackable washer/dryer so the only things we unload is stuff from the fridge and of course MEDS. After all these years we have 2 of everything so no unloading needed.

[Danj2001]

You took the words right out of my mouth. I flew airliners for 37 years and we always had flight plans and hauling an RV around the country requires the same attention. I also go over the route, plan rest stops (I have two Greyhounds that need walking as we do) and generally stay in the right lane. I tow a 34 foot TT with a Ford Excursion.

[Winterbagoal]

Originally Posted by H Steinhoff

At age 82, fatigue gets to be a big factor. Besides just trying to keep that big box on the road, is the challenge of all those pot holes, rough pavement, and bridge joints. My wife have a bad back and feels every jolt. On some bad 4-lane roads I drive in the left lane when nobody is behind me and no fuzz is in sight. On 2-lane roads I may drive on the white line or the yellow line when no opposing traffic is in sight, whatever is smoother. Probably the biggest fatigue factor is getting home and spending 3 hours unloading the stuff we need in the house.

Not quite 82 yet, but agree with or have done everything mentioned, especially the last line. Although we've got it down to about 1.5 hours, just by repetition.

[ScopesNC]

Originally Posted by rarebear.nm

Not directly related to the OP, but how many of you have seen that the Trump administration wants to relax the safety rules related to large commercial truck drivers' hours of wheel time per day.

https://www.latimes.com/business/sto...ive-time-rules

After these rules were put in place deaths related to semi collisions went down. So now we may have to be even more alert.

There is always an exception to the rules or statements made but ?? Rant starting now.

Truckers are not perfect and a very few small number of them should not be out there but can I say this oh and a lot more.

To the misinformed people who make it out to be the trucking industries fault or a politicians fault. Way to much blame to go around and most is with the American public itself.

It is very tragic that carriers and drivers across this country are saddled with guilt and blame for many crashes they could do nothing to prevent.

The University of Michigan studied 8,309 fatal car-truck crashes to determine fault. 81 percent of the time, car drivers were assigned at fault, and 27 percent for truck drivers.

Let me add some more so that folks can be a little more informed. Our great National Highway Traffic Safety Administration studied 10,092 fatal accidents, and guess what? Cars were responsible 91 percent of the time during head-on crashes, 91 percent of the time in opposite-direction head on , sideswipes, 71 percent of rear-end crashes and 77 percent of same-direction sideswipes.

Can you say TEXTING?

These number of accidents are getting worse each year as to the number or trucks and cars on the highways grows.

The fact is with cameras in the tucks now recording the accidents has proven a majority Americans driving cars have little to no clue at all how to drive safely with trucks on the same road. For years truckers and companies were sued by CHASER lawyers because it was easy to do so. Now it has all changed due to the cameras. That lawyer sends a letter he is sewing for his client. The lawyer is then shown the trucks video and goes away fast, case dropped.

The crash numbers are going up on trucks and have been for a while as the numbers of trucks increases.
All the high tech stuff such as automatic emergency braking, following to close warning and breaking systems ,lane departure warning and cameras that see behind the truck are becoming standard on newer trucks now helping the drivers become safer. With all of this new safety stuff the percentages may start going down even as the numbers of trucks and cars goes up. Time will tell.

The truck numbers on the roads are going up as Americans cry for free shipping on items and lower cost shipping for their online buying habits increases. The economy doing so well ( while a good thing in most cases ) doesn't help.

The main cures for this is what most Americans will not accept.

Start placing some of the same safety restrictions and laws on the American car, and RV drivers . Watch how the accident numbers drop so very fast.

Just like they cried when the subject of taking the phones off line while driving was cried about until it was dropped. Texting while driving is rampant and gets worse law or no law. Turn it off and watch the numbers get better over night.

I know a 1000 and 1 excuses would fly out there over night, but Americans need to be in school and taught to drive .

A lot of countries make you go to school 6 months and teach you all about being safe in a car . ( Germany for example ) It cost a ton more to do this but the lives saved are priceless.

Heck they don't even teach people how to parallel park in most states now. To many were failing that part of the test. They just couldn't grasp it. So what do or government officials do. They do away with that part of the test. It's just to hard for them. Now some of these very people are driving RV's and towing trailers. As some folks are saying now days OMG!!

They should at least be made to sit through the videos of what happens when cars and RV's get involved with that tractor trailers. They would learn a new respect for the fact they are always going to lose the battle and truck drivers are not always going to be able to help them out when they get stupid.

Americans for the most part talk about safe driving ,but have no clue. Truckers spend a lot of time and money learning to be safe out there. They don't spend a few days in some RV industries feel good class. Can you imagine if they did? Class A and B RV drivers should be made to do the same. The vehicle has a class and the people driving them should have a class licenses to drive them. Include school,and DOT physicals ( lot of CPAP machines will be sold then LOL ) and take a DOT DMV road test just like truckers do. They too should be held to safe road standards just like trucks are. After all they weigh a lot more than any car does also. They would be included in the weigh station inspections stops and the such. Pulling a toad means get a additional tandems trailer endorsement added to the class A just like truckers have to do.

What would that do? Make the RV driver more accountable for what he or she does . Make them safer than they already think they are.

Americans in a car will continue to run on the roads until till road death tolls become the number 1 killer twice over anything else. Were Americans and we love the freedoms that a car brings us.

At least the RV'er and trucker will know they have done all they can do to be safe out there.

I could go on with my little rant , but will stop now.

Just stop blaming truckers for all your bad own the road driving habits please. Truckers are not perfect , but statistics show your differently not near the drivers they are. RELAXED RULES OR NOT !

Jim T

X Optical network Engineer

X Truck driver

X Army

12 years in Europe

[Captn John]

Jim, please explain how those from Pakistan and other places get a cal when they cannot read, write, or speak English. Back in the day I drove semi and know most accidents are caused by drivers of cars. Never could think the numbers you stated though. I’m all for scales on RVs. Remember semi and all commercial drivers are supposed to be professional and many forgot that. The best thing is requiring gps and computer logging. There were times when I ran two books, some did it all the time and some still eat bennies for lunch. In the old days a trucker could stop and help a car driver and no time for that now. I’ll be looking for the number of single vehicle trucker accidents. I’ve been stopped for as many of those as car/truck accidents.

[Charming]

Since the topic has gone completely off topic, I will put in my 2 cents on trucks.

My father was a professional truck driver his entire career. What even union drivers faced back then and now even more so, is the need by the company to push the drivers for more miles. Whatever it took. Now days without a strong union, most drivers are at the mercy of the company. Some corporations, such as Walmart (go figure, never thought I would hold them up as an example of anything) have strict rules on their drivers. My father never did drugs, but he knew plenty of drivers out on the road pushing it with the aid of amphetamines.

Fast forward to this past January, my grandson was on his way to work as an EMT. A truck on the opposite of the median hit a car, lost control crossed the median, going through the divider wall and a large grassy median to hit him head on and finally coming to rest on another car.

They had to cut him out of the car, he thought he was going to die when it caught on fire. My grandson spent weeks in the hospital, he is still using a wheelchair and crutches to get around. They have no idea what full recovery will be or when.

If my grandson had lost control of his car at most he would have hit one other vehicle. If he were the one to enter the grassy median, the metal fence would have stopped him. One speeding tractor trailer can do a lot of damage.

I think most professional drivers are careful and do not want to be in or cause accidents. They are human and when they are being pushed to go beyond their limits, at least in the past we had laws on the books to prevent the most egregious examples of expecting to much, with the relaxing of rules and because it is very difficult to find qualified drivers these days, we don't know who is behind the wheel.

[Captn John]

A friend is still driving long haul and about to retire. He now receives $250 per week that he does not go over 65 mph. The company saves on insurance. Even with that he is still making less than before the gps and computer logs. If he goes more than 15 miles off route he gets a phone call now~~ they are watching fuel costs too.

[ArkansasRomr]

OL Gunny,

That was some great stuff!

Thanks a heap for sharing this with us.

[m.donatelli6]

Originally Posted by LandKPart2

Before starting this thread I did a search of the forum and didn't come up with any discussions relating to driver fatigue. If I'm in fact duplicating or beating a dead horse, my apologies.

We (me, mostly) drive a 2012 Newmar Ventana 3433 and have been full time for around three months now. We've camped our way from Seattle to our current site in Interlochen Michigan.

We try to limit our days to two or three hours actual driving at the most. Even with that I find myself arriving at the campground fatigued and a bit wrung out.

So I started thinking about all that goes on while driving a 35 foot, 28,000 pound vehicle. A non-RV driver might think all one did was sit in big comfy leather seats while blissfully sailing down the road without a care in the world. I wish that were so...

Consider the multi-tasking involved:

Maintaining your scan of road, mirrors, gauges, navigation and back again. Maintaining lane position. Dealing with wind gusts, exits, turns, merging and "what was that sound?!?" Now add in small town streets. Traffic. Finding the campground entrance and finally getting parked.

No wonder fatigue becomes a factor.

My questions to the group are, what warning signs of fatigue do you notice? What strategies do you use to combat fatigue? Do you notice deterioration of driving skills?

We build in lunch stops at interstate rest stops or large empty parking lots. 30 minutes minimum. That seems to help, but still, by the end of the day its definitely martini time!

Les

We bought a Allegro Breeze last winter, i have a commercial drivers licence
and I think it was the worst thing i have driven, made several modifications and now it is a pleasure to drive it is possible you have a similar situation, not sure how the previous owner drove it

[roadking1217]

for me its 400-550 miles a day the key for me is to keep my mind occupied and when stopping for a bathroom break instead of using the MH head pull into rest area park a good distance from bathhouse and get out and walk
GOD BLESS THE USA & safe travels Rick & Karen

[pduggs]

Originally Posted by NeverGrowUp

Driving barefoot stimulates your nerve endings and keeps you awake- cruise control is a negative to this.

I always drive the coach barefoot. Not for the reason you mention, but I have found it very comfortable. I have never driven a car barefoot.

[Winterbagoal]

Originally Posted by pduggs

I always drive the coach barefoot. Not for the reason you mention, but I have found it very comfortable. I have never driven a car barefoot.

Sandals, or other full soled footwear seems to work for me. Don't think barefoot is safe, particularly.