Nobody should ever drive while tired because it is extremely dangerous. Everyone is guilty of doing it, including me. On many occasions, I know that I have been way too tired to drive. Hopefully, this bad habit will not catch up with you, but it did catch up with me.

This last weekend I was driving home late on Saturday night. I knew that I was tired before I even grabbed the keys, but, as always, I figured that I would have no problem making it home. I made it about halfway home before the warm, quiet car and my lack of sleep caught up with me.

Just before I turned off of I-94 to head back towards St. Cloud, I fell asleep. I woke up to a repeated pounding noise on my driver side. I had drifted a few feet to the left and caught the cable barrier that separated the two sides of the interstate. I slammed my breaks and ended up backward in the left lane. I turned on my hazard signals and attempted to exit the car. The driver door was crushed shut. I kicked the door open and walked safely to the other side of the cable barrier. According to the State Patrol officer, “The cable barrier did its job. The cable barriers are much more forgiving than the solid barriers. Most crashes involving a solid barrier have more severe injuries.”

I walked away from that accident without a scratch, but it could have been much worse. Both the State Trooper and tow truck driver were amazed at the amount of damage to the vehicle and the lack of damage to me.

The message I hope you take from this story is this, there are no good excuses for driving tired. If you are feeling tired behind the wheel, pull over and walk around, get something to drink, call someone to talk too, turn off cruise control, or pull over and just rest. Driving tired is not worth losing your life or risking someone else’s life. Drive Safe!