[DWind]

As told by everybody , I believe you were not mentally prepared to enjoy the trip. This could be because of
1. Not having done big trips before?
2. On both the trips (to and fro) you had little or no rest before the trip. I can understand the hurry for the onward as you cannot really plan for work but the return could have been done after a few hours sleep. That way you would have avoided sleepiness which impaired your judgement in driving as well as taking a decision to continue your trip without stopping.
3. No planning for rest stops. I believe these are as important as the trip itself.

Looks like your wife knows more about you than yourself in warning you to not take trips alone.:-) You are really lucky that way!

[coolclouds]

Happy to see that you are safe. From my little experience,

Start early, if its a really long drive so that you can drive for 15-20 hrs easily. In case feels tired, stop at any secure places lnear toll/hotels/police station and take a nap in car itself.
Usually keep an alarm for 2-3 hrs and if gets up early, continue the drive.

I personally feel tired to drive between 5am-6am hence I plan my drives accordingly that I reach my destination before that.

Most importantly, better late than never.

Drive safe

[Sheel]

Listen to your instinct and or 6th sense. On a long ride/drive it helps.

I believe everyone is anxious regarding a trip (prior and during).

What surprised me is, why you ignored a couple of close calls before taking rest prior to stopping? It was dangerous.

[Surprise]

I too have experienced concentration levels dropping drastically, but any incidents, which prompts for any sudden braking or gets our attention quickly, all those drowsiness will be wiped off quickly & freshness will be regained.

Also I have stopped at times, when I feel that drowsiness, but the moment you walk out of your car, you feel very fresh. In certain trips, I have experienced 20-30 mins of low level concentration & need to very careful during such time. Once I cross that period, you never feel like taking a break.

[ampere]

Need to be aware that:

There is no Noble Prize waiting at the destination for completing a journey is so and so a time! Better to break journey in doable chunks.

Also as others said, while driving if you start thinking of destination, then driving is not for you!

[maddy42]

Glad your safe and back home. One thing you got to know while driving in India is the journey is also a memory not just the destination.

All drivers: Like ampere said there is no nobel prize waiting for you at the end. It sounds nice to go for long drives but non stop will break your concentration.

Have a break have a kit kat.

Also there is only one life. Live it

[rock18]

@rajinibm: I guess many people attempt such a long trip for pure driving pleasure but you did not seem to enjoy this journey even one bit.
You could have kept the car in bangalore itself and taken the flight to mumbai,that would have saved you a lot of stress and kms.
My brother once did this mumbai trip out of nowhere but he was too tired and exhausted to return back,He hired some packers&movers to get the car back to mumbai.
Anyway lesson learnt. This will be helpful for you,me and other people who take such long trips without planning.

Hope you have recovered now from the mental and physical stress.

[unni.ak]

Originally Posted by rajinibm

Around 7 am I felt drowsy and I thought let me stop the car someplace and sleep for an hour or two,so I fwould feel refreshed and would feel better to drive ....... like a reflex motion I dozed off and when I open my eyes I was just a second away from crashing the car into the road divider!

This brought me to sanity and I stopped the car and washed my face and had a couple of teas and started off again!

Is it Rajin IBM or Rajini BM! Well, will stick to Raj for ease.

Raj, hats off to you for undertaking the drive. The road always beacons, and you are richer for the experience now. Sleep, of your own or of the other road users, is a major challenge on the road. I'm happy that you could open up and tell others of the risks you faced by not listening to the body. There might be lot many more on the forum who might've faced the same, but not come out and openly discussed it, cause it can be seen as a weakness.

You should take up more road trips, because now you've understood the risks, and is wiser. I do most of my drives in the night, and sleep is something I deal with each and every time. Tea/coffee does not help me keep awake. So, I keep drinking water. With the AC on, and lots of water, breaks are often ;-). This helps me stretch, and wash my face before I start off. Mind keeps telling us to keep going another 10km, 15kms etc before we stop . And if nothing helps, I park for 15-20mins and catch some shut eye.

[Wanderer78]

Rajni,
Glad to know that you are all right. As someone in the thread mentioned, most of the accidents occur because the driver doses off.

I would suggest that anyone doing a long drive, wait as soon as they feel dizzy/sleepy. No matter how important the work is, it's nothing compared to ones own safety.

[Jeep]

A very important thread.

Happened to me once. Started from Cochin early in the morning (read: lack of good sleep), and reached Bangalore the next morning at around 5 am. Had to take a long route via Wayanad since I had some work there. My elder bro was with me, and on the Mysore - Blore stretch I almost felt that I would dose off. Bro as well was sleepy. However, somehow we just wanted to reach Blore. Was a really stupid thing not to have stayed back at Mysore. Vowed that I would never drive so sleep-deprived, no matter what

[Spitfire]

Weird that you had to undertake the journey to learn all this. This is commonsense.

I have slept on the top of my car once because I found it quite suffocating inside.

Anyways all is well that ends well.

[amitoj]

You forgot the most important lesson, my friend. Always tell your wife what you are upto

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by amitoj

Always tell your wife what you are upto

His car will then pop up in the classifieds.

[rajinibm]

Originally Posted by MAS

Hi Raj

Interesting thread. You are very lucky to be alive. Most of the highway accidents occur due to the driver dozing off.

I always used to wonder when I used to see overturned trucks in the highway and I used to think 'hey there is no other vehicle around, so wat did he hit to topple over?!' Now I know - the driver probably dozed off!

I'm surprised how you could drive non-stop to Mumbai other than the occasional Tea breaks. Even on your way back, you drove for a continuous 18 hours. You must have been crazy to drive your car like a locomotive. Starting at 11 pm in the night on Indian highways is very risky. God forbidden, if something had gone wrong with the car in the middle of the night, you would have been kicking yourself for attempting the journey.

Yea totally non-stop, just a couple of tea breaks for a couple of mins and back with one minded dedication to reach home in chennai!It was like I was literally possessed and all I had in mind was to get back!Maybe it was a full moon night!:-)
I actually drive from Chennai - Bangalore atleast once a month alone and I enjoy that but this trip I just wanted to get it over and done with!I even switched off the music in the car( I never usually do that) and just drove on to reach chennai!
Even now when I think back I feel anything could have happened that day and glad it didnt!

Actually while driving back I found the drive less stressfull as the traffic seemed very less compared to the drive from chennai to Mumbai or perhaps I dont remember most of the drive while coming back due to you know what!:-)

Chennai-Mumbai-Chennai by road is a dream drive for me too. But after reading this thread, I know I have to plan my trip better and enjoy the journey.

Yes its very important to enjoy the drive and do it relaxed.I now feel I did this drive maybe perhaps my wife always used to say its too far and why do you want to do it , just cuz others have?The drive can be enjoyed having some one with you and planning where to stop and when to get off and rest!

Which car did you drive? Seems to be a tough, reliable motor!!!

I actually planned to take my Punto then was not comfortable doing it so went in my ANHC.It proved to be a good sturdy reliable car.

Originally Posted by selfdrive

The worst part in this is that you could have ended up hurting somebody else for no fault of theirs.
I am glad you have learnt your lesson without any harm to you or anyone else.

Thats so true.I could have miamed somebody and lucky nothing happened!

Originally Posted by camchennai

Rajni - I am happy that you got back safe.

While reading your thread I was thinking why have you not taken any rest in between and at the end i read you realized your mistake. I have made two trips in the same road, one was from Chennai to Mumbai and the other was from Pune to Chennai. And in both trips I made it a point that i will take rest in Bangalore for at least 6 hours. I work in grave yard shifts and still when it comes to long drive I do tend to take rest just to avoid any fatal errors. Its practically difficult to drive without a rest in this stretch and even Volvo buses have 2 drivers in this route.

Thats one more factor actually which triggered off tis insanity drive.I reached home very late around 1 or so on the morning before I left for bombay so night before departure slept for a couple of hrs then next night no sleep at all.reached bombay and then got ready and went to work, that night went for a official party and so again slept around 2 am and got up around 6 and then left the next night so no proper sleep from 3 days and then drove the whole night coming back from bombay to chennai so thats almost 4 nights of no sleep!wow!only now I am myself seeing the pieces put together which led to this!

Originally Posted by alto99

Lucky that you got awake at right times.
Worst part about dozing off is that one does not realize what is happening around and that one has to stop. Even if there are passengers they are likely to be in the same condition.
I have experienced it and I still dont remember the drive from Kankavli to Goa on NH17 after which I have decided not to drive after 1 am.

Yes It was like a jerk and I used to get up and then tell myself dont sleep and back to slumberland!would see in half-consiousnes cars whizzing past and guess for almost a couple of hrs kept this driving on in semi-sleep!

Originally Posted by ptushar

@rajinibm
Well, glad to learn that you do realise that what you did was quite silly. The most important thing is that you have a tremendous learning. As they say in Marathi "Anubhav vikat ghyava lakto", which means "You need to buy experience". Well, there you go, we have a more learned rajinibm with us now.

And I too have some pointers from your experience. Completely agree to all your points. And in hindsight, your wife's advice of having a co-driver along with you makes a lot of sense. On such long drives, it is good to do it with atleast two drivers.

I totally agree with you.Sometimes makes sense to listen to your wife even if you dont want to show they are 100% correct!But this time yes , she was!My wife would not even know what happened to me if anything had and same with my family too!

Originally Posted by ImranShahnawaz

Good to know that you are back and alive.
Surprised to hear that you took Mumbai-Chennai trip non-stop, what was the motivational force behind this madness?

The motivation was thinking I am too good and I can do anything I want i guess and starting the drive back in the night when I could have slept that night and cme back relaxed the next morning!I really dont know what prompted this - My mind was saying get back home to chennai as the drive from che-bby was not something i would cherish so all I wanted was to get back and guess my body and mind tuned in saying leave bombay,leave asap and then once in the car it was a single minded fixation!It was irrational and something I would never want to happen again!

One of the line in your thread says "don't usually try to race with every car who overtakes me or get worked up when a smaller car overtakes me and whizzes past", don't you think what you have done was a race with time? (sorry to be harsh)

What I meant was I am usually very safe in driving and nothing in a way produces you could say road rash or makes me do antics on the highway.I usually let all and sundry overtake me if they are in a hurry.This was just to indicte that in this trip of 1300+1300 kms the above did not stand good and I lost my sense of driving.I drove at 120-140 while coming back and all sensibility went out of the window for just reason - lack of sleep and I did not want to be in that car for hrs together!

Originally Posted by 2500cc

Rajini,


I suggest all of us to keep our family pic on the vanity mirror/console/dashboard. So that we would be well within our limits.

Thats a very good suggestion and I plan to do so!

Originally Posted by Surprise

What is your previous longest distance traveled solo on a highway? Do u enjoy solo rides or prefer someone having along with you during the drive? I hate driving solo, but would like to have a guy along with me, who does not know how to drive a car

The max distance done by me before this trip is che-blr thats what around 360 kms.I like doing solos but never again for this distance.I enjoy my che-blr trips a lot and thought even the che-bby would be the same but I did not enjoy or had even a minute of enjoyment.All I wanted was to see the kms get cruched up very fast and reach bombay and way back wanted to reach chennai and get this trip over and done with.

Actually i always had this childhood fantasy that I have a lady chauffer who could drive me around that would have been bliss!:-)Hey maybe next time you could drive me down to bombay and back and I could pretend I dont know to drive!

[rajinibm]

Originally Posted by unni.ak

Is it Rajin IBM or Rajini BM! Well, will stick to Raj for ease.

Well its Raj in ibm.
I'm happy that you could open up and tell others of the risks you faced by not listening to the body. There might be lot many more on the forum who might've faced the same, but not come out and openly discussed it, cause it can be seen as a weakness.

Well i actually thought a lot before putting this experience up as you rightly pointed out i was thinking i was puttting out my -ves here and what criticism do i want?But then i thought hey I was so naive and did this trip without any planning and could have proved to be a disaster.So even if it can make sense or help even a single person it would be invaluable what I learnt.Hey and anyways I am incognito right!:-)

Originally Posted by amitoj

You forgot the most important lesson, my friend. Always tell your wife what you are upto

Well, Almost everything!

Originally Posted by Spitfire

His car will then pop up in the classifieds.

Lol, Planning to sell my Punto and probably buy a Jazz.So yes it would show up in classifieds soon!