A bit of a close call

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wbvs58

wbvs58

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I was very lucky to escape any injury today. I had been down to the Coop feedmill to pick up some bags of custom mix to get me through until the feedtruck came tomorrow to fill my silo. It is about 120 km round trip. About 200 m from the corner of my road I fell asleep, woke up just as leaving the road, went over a culvert about a metre drop, hit the table drain side on and rolled once I think and ended up on the side. I climbed out the window, got my 2 dogs out and all OK fortunately, just an abrasion on my forearm.

I have a mitochondrial defect in my muscle cells and I do get fatigued but have learnt to manage it, today I slipped up. If I had been further away from home when I started feeling as I did I would have pulled up and closed my eyes for a 5 min nap, that is all it takes and I am right but because home was just around the corner I thought I could get there. With the drought here I am doing a pretty full few hours before breakfast so really need to close my eyes for a bit before getting on with the next job, today I didn't.

Ken
 
Thanks for sharing that. It serves as a lesson especially for those of us that are now seniors. Our body functions are not as sharp as they were once upon a time. The things I notice most besides fatigue is deteriorated balance and dexterity. I sawed a big dead tree down yesterday. I dang near fell a couple times trying to get better position to saw. That can be pretty dangerous with a running chainsaw.

I have only been in one wreck and that was in the Zambezi Valley in Zimbabwe. I was in an open land rover with Richard Brebner and there were two trackers in the back. He lost power going down a very steep bank. At the bottom of the bank, Richard turned hard to the right to avoid going into a deep ravine. It was like life suddenly went into slow motion. I felt the vehicle lift on one side and turn over. The only one who got hurt was one of the trackers in the back. It took a day to get him up to the rim of the valley where a plane flew in and took him to Harare.
 
Scary. So easy to do on our long straight roads. I nearly fell asleep once, got my wife to take over and with her driving style i was wide awake the rest of the trip. I had a mate who was so accident prone. He did this twice, first time he woke up just before he went off the road and as he was pretty much asleep and really relaxed, even though he wrecked the car completely was hardly hurt. Next time he woke up and had time to tighten all his muscles before he wrote that car off. He was a sore boy after that for quite a while. Ironically he was driving a fully loaded semi trailer when a semi driver coming the other way fell asleep and veered into him, wrote that truck off to. His dad had a long history of doing similar things, even got his ponytail caught in a drill rig and scalped himself one time, they sewed his hair all back on like a wig!
 
I am glad that your weren't injured. Next time take that nap.

One evening last summer one of the gold miners from up stream drove off the corner out in front of my house. He fell asleep at the wheel too. I was sitting in the living room facing a big window that looks that way. I happened to be looking and watched him go off the bank. His van stayed upright until just above the bottom where it flopped over on its side. The hill is about 30 feet high and steep enough that it is very difficult to climb up. We ran out there with flashlights. He said he was OK. As he moved around inside the van I could see it moving, and in the wrong way. There was a large rock under one of the wheels on the up hill side When he started to climb out I got on the up hill side and held down with all my weight. It really felt like the van was going to roll some more. If it had continued rolling while he was climbing out it would have been very bad.
 
AS others have said....
I also have to recognize daily that I am not the man I used to be....
tripping and falling is my biggest obstacle....
have to be on the lookout all the time...
reaction time is slower and have to think about everything I do to keep from killing myself...
almost bought a new little chain saw yesterday cause the one I have is just so heavy to be limbing trees with while cleaning up a fence line....might go back and get it yet...
 
Glad you are okay. Dozing off is so easy.... and sometimes you don't even realize how tired you are. Like you said, just a little nap can make a BIG difference. I have stopped testing many herds in the morning due to the "being tired" thing and being afraid of falling asleep driving.
Be careful so you can stick around for a bit, please....
 
Thanks for all your concerns, yes I will take this as a big warning and I will just drive locally now, any longer trip can wait until I have another driver. I have pulled up pretty well, no soreness other than the usual. I keep asking myself am I really here or am I in heaven now or in my case somewhere a bit hotter or am I dreaming this and I am in hospital in a coma but people I ask tell me I'm still here so here's hoping.
I would like to tell my neurologist about this but am a bit worried he might pull the pin on my driving. I wouldn't be against having some restrictions on my driving but I think I might just apply the restrictions myself.

Ken
 
Dang Ken. Glad you're alright. Man things can happen so fast. Like Slick said, second chances are numbered. Be careful out there.
 
pdfangus said:
AS others have said....
I also have to recognize daily that I am not the man I used to be....
tripping and falling is my biggest obstacle....
have to be on the lookout all the time...
reaction time is slower and have to think about everything I do to keep from killing myself...
almost bought a new little chain saw yesterday cause the one I have is just so heavy to be limbing trees with while cleaning up a fence line....might go back and get it yet...
Click to expand...

Check out the electric sthil. That is what us old timers need.
 
Ken

So thankful your ok, I assure you if you tell the doctor the first thing they do is tell you to stop driving for at minimum of 6 months. I had an episode once while driving luckily on property hit a tree and took out a run of fence. Couldn't remember much of what happened, told the doctor and lost my driving privileges for six months. They don't take your keys but once it is in your file if your driving and have an accident insurance won't cover you. It was a long six months. Be careful we want to keep you around for a long time!

Gizmom
 

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