How To Drive A Motorcar
A Key To The Subtleties Of Motoring

RISK OF FALLING ASLEEP such an admission, but as a matter of simple fact such an idea is quite erroneous. Falling asleep at the wheel of a car when making a long night drive need not in the slightest shape or form have anything to do with having had this, that, or the other for dinner; this, that, or the other to drink; or with having a weak heart, a weak constitution, or any similar physical defect. No; it is some curious natural action which takes place to an extent on nearly all drivers, but in a pronounced manner on others. A man who has never had anything to drink in his life and who has fed on the most innocuous of indiges- tion-producing food-stuff, may still on a long night drive find himself beginning to fall asleep, and may actually drop off to sleep at the wheel of the car so suddenly that he has no precise knowledge of the fact that he is doing so. The writer has had experience of drivers falling asleep on more than one occasion, and onoe when on a long night journey, entirely given up to the charms of Morpheus in the rear seat, suddenly awoke to find himself with torn clothes and scratched face and hands, in the middle of a hedge. The explanation was that the driver, who was a thoroughly moderate man in every way, and healthier and stronger physically than ninety-nine men out of a hundred, had fallen asleep, the car had jumped the grass curb, and he awoke only in time to assist in stopping the car when its progress wks mainly arrested by the hedge. Several other instances have come under the writer’s notice, and, as aforementioned, it is abso- lutely inaccurate to put down falling asleep at the wheel of a car on a long night journey as in any way due to tendencies towards inebriety or other physical defects. If, then, on a long night run, a driver should at any- time feel the slightest symptoms of drowsiness coming over him—on no account ever argue that because you are driving at 30 or 40 miles an hour yon are bound to be all right and cannot fall asleep—stop the car at once. Do not think either that the fresh air will keep you awake, or that anything else will. It is better