Stay Awake!

As I was driving to a meeting yesterday I was sleepy. It was 3 in the afternoon, I hadn't gotten my diet Coke yet and the warmth of the afternoon sun served as the prefect trifecta to lull me to snooze-ville. A quick blast of cold air and a zap of loud music helped wake me up and I was able to make it to the meeting without falling asleep.

Sleeping while driving is, I realize, a bad thing. But the pictures Sean sent this morning made me realize how dangerous it really is:

The driver of this Suburban was a college kid driving back to school. After dozing off, he hit the end section of the guard rail. You can see the guard rail knifed through the right headlight and went through the length of the car; it exited through the driver’s side rear window. One hundred twenty feet of steel sliced through the Chevy that thankfully had no passengers.

When Sean called this morning we talked about the pictures and he said, “Can you imagine what that sounded like?” Um, no. No, I cannot. I also cannot imagine how tight the hug was the boy got from his mom or the length of the lecture he received after his parents realized he was okay.

Sean sent this to Michael but copied me; it felt like a timely reminder in light of what happened yesterday. So consider this my public service for the day and don’t drive sleepy!

And note to myself: don’t wait for the diet Coke; it’s okay to have two.  Because that kind of drinking and driving will help avoid snoozing and driving.

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