falling asleep while driving can be fatal...
02-02-18, 11:28 AM
#1
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
iTrader: (20)
falling asleep while driving can be fatal...
while we love cars, we should never lose sight that they can be deadly.
last sunday, my girlfriend's only son, Matthew, just 23 coming up on 24, got in his car to drive home in the night after spending some time with friends after work. he drove up i95 n. from fort lauderdale to delray beach. we believe he fell asleep right at his exit, his car probably drifted across the lanes at high speed (the road gently curves left there), and went through a guard rail, down a ditch and hit a tree at full force. he was gone in an instant. i saw the car later at the tow place and i cannot describe it. coincidentally to this forum, it was a 2017 toyota corolla, a car he really liked.
the tragedy of course is this didn't need to happen, but accidents do happen and most of us have driven tired at some point. i read once that driving tired is not much different than driving while intoxicated. falling asleep though, means complete loss of control of course.
i share the story of this fine young man, 6'3 like me, as a cautionary tale for you and your loved ones. he was finding his way, finally loving his studies and finishing up his degree at FAU while also working full time at JetBlue, a job he loved. he loved the miami dolphins (not sure why ha), the musician drake, and theme parks... he worked for a few years at universal theme parks and loved it and learned so much.
more info about Matthew and tribute video:
https://www.robertsfunerals.com/noti...Robert-Proctor
stay safe all.
last sunday, my girlfriend's only son, Matthew, just 23 coming up on 24, got in his car to drive home in the night after spending some time with friends after work. he drove up i95 n. from fort lauderdale to delray beach. we believe he fell asleep right at his exit, his car probably drifted across the lanes at high speed (the road gently curves left there), and went through a guard rail, down a ditch and hit a tree at full force. he was gone in an instant. i saw the car later at the tow place and i cannot describe it. coincidentally to this forum, it was a 2017 toyota corolla, a car he really liked.
the tragedy of course is this didn't need to happen, but accidents do happen and most of us have driven tired at some point. i read once that driving tired is not much different than driving while intoxicated. falling asleep though, means complete loss of control of course.
i share the story of this fine young man, 6'3 like me, as a cautionary tale for you and your loved ones. he was finding his way, finally loving his studies and finishing up his degree at FAU while also working full time at JetBlue, a job he loved. he loved the miami dolphins (not sure why ha), the musician drake, and theme parks... he worked for a few years at universal theme parks and loved it and learned so much.
more info about Matthew and tribute video:
https://www.robertsfunerals.com/noti...Robert-Proctor
stay safe all.
02-02-18, 11:36 AM
#3
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
iTrader: (20)
We will never know exactly what happened. But no signs of slowing down at all were a clue.
02-02-18, 11:45 AM
#6
Lexus Fanatic
Sorry to hear that, bit......my condolences to both you and your girl friend. From the sound of it, Matthew could (maybe) have been your future son-in-law.
Not that it makes any difference as far as the crash is concerned, but, just for the record, you say he was in a 2017 Corolla? The media reports (and the Florida Highway Patrol) say it was a Camry.
http://cbs12.com/news/local/orlando-...ay-beach-crash
https://florida.liveuamap.com/en/201...day-in-a-crash
Given the description in the article (gentle curve, I-95, Delray Beach at Atlantic Ave., northbound, down a slope, into trees), I think this is probably the crash site:
https://www.google.com/maps/@26.4589.../data=!3m1!1e3
Not that it makes any difference as far as the crash is concerned, but, just for the record, you say he was in a 2017 Corolla? The media reports (and the Florida Highway Patrol) say it was a Camry.
http://cbs12.com/news/local/orlando-...ay-beach-crash
https://florida.liveuamap.com/en/201...day-in-a-crash
Given the description in the article (gentle curve, I-95, Delray Beach at Atlantic Ave., northbound, down a slope, into trees), I think this is probably the crash site:
https://www.google.com/maps/@26.4589.../data=!3m1!1e3
Last edited by mmarshall; 02-02-18 at 11:55 AM.
02-02-18, 11:53 AM
#7
Dysfunctional Veteran
while we love cars, we should never lose sight that they can be deadly.
last sunday, my girlfriend's only son, Matthew, just 23 coming up on 24, got in his car to drive home in the night after spending some time with friends after work. he drove up i95 n. from fort lauderdale to delray beach. we believe he fell asleep right at his exit, his car probably drifted across the lanes at high speed (the road gently curves left there), and went through a guard rail, down a ditch and hit a tree at full force. he was gone in an instant. i saw the car later at the tow place and i cannot describe it. coincidentally to this forum, it was a 2017 toyota corolla, a car he really liked.
the tragedy of course is this didn't need to happen, but accidents do happen and most of us have driven tired at some point. i read once that driving tired is not much different than driving while intoxicated. falling asleep though, means complete loss of control of course.
i share the story of this fine young man, 6'3 like me, as a cautionary tale for you and your loved ones. he was finding his way, finally loving his studies and finishing up his degree at FAU while also working full time at JetBlue, a job he loved. he loved the miami dolphins (not sure why ha), the musician drake, and theme parks... he worked for a few years at universal theme parks and loved it and learned so much.
more info about Matthew and tribute video:
https://www.robertsfunerals.com/noti...Robert-Proctor
stay safe all.
last sunday, my girlfriend's only son, Matthew, just 23 coming up on 24, got in his car to drive home in the night after spending some time with friends after work. he drove up i95 n. from fort lauderdale to delray beach. we believe he fell asleep right at his exit, his car probably drifted across the lanes at high speed (the road gently curves left there), and went through a guard rail, down a ditch and hit a tree at full force. he was gone in an instant. i saw the car later at the tow place and i cannot describe it. coincidentally to this forum, it was a 2017 toyota corolla, a car he really liked.
the tragedy of course is this didn't need to happen, but accidents do happen and most of us have driven tired at some point. i read once that driving tired is not much different than driving while intoxicated. falling asleep though, means complete loss of control of course.
i share the story of this fine young man, 6'3 like me, as a cautionary tale for you and your loved ones. he was finding his way, finally loving his studies and finishing up his degree at FAU while also working full time at JetBlue, a job he loved. he loved the miami dolphins (not sure why ha), the musician drake, and theme parks... he worked for a few years at universal theme parks and loved it and learned so much.
more info about Matthew and tribute video:
https://www.robertsfunerals.com/noti...Robert-Proctor
stay safe all.
My deepest condolences... No parent should ever outlive their child. Deepest sympathies and love to you and yours. If there is anything you guys need, please don't hesitate to ask.
Trending Topics
02-02-18, 12:13 PM
#8
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
iTrader: (20)
Not that it makes any difference as far as the crash is concerned, but, just for the record, you say he was in a 2017 Corolla? The media reports (and the Florida Highway Patrol) say it was a Camry.
Given the description in the article (gentle curve, I-95, Delray Beach at Atlantic Ave., northbound, down a slope, into trees), I think this is probably the crash site:
02-02-18, 12:14 PM
#9
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
iTrader: (20)
02-02-18, 12:26 PM
#10
Wow this is terrible. Sending positive thoughts to you and your GF's family.
Doesn't the '17+ Corolla have standard Lane Departure Alert and Pre-Collision System? Not that it could have prevented this, but perhaps mitigate the collision and reduce the impact.
2017 toyota corolla
02-02-18, 12:55 PM
#11
Lexus Fanatic
Do you know if Matthew was belted in properly, and the air bags went off like they were supposed to? If working properly, of course, those two items can save a lot of lives. That info is often in police reports, but not always made public.
thanks for that link, that's an interesting 3d visual i'd not seen and probably right around there, yes. the car had a lot of tree debris embedded. my girlfriend's cousin knows where it happened now, but i've not yet talked to her about it.
02-02-18, 04:31 PM
#12
Lexus Fanatic
I am sorry about your loss Bit, way too young.
When I was in college I had a full time job with really bad hours, had to beat work at 4am most mornings so I had to leave home a little after 3am. I thought I was young and in shape and can handle the full time job and going to college full time but I should have known better, my uncle and my cousin moved in to the place I was staying at when I started work which made things much worse. My cousin gave out my home number to his friends(even though he had a cell phone) and his friends would call him up to 11pm at night so I would get woken up and could not get back to sleep and did not want to be that guy to tell my cousin to stop having people call the house at night so I got very little to almost no sleep for days/nights on end. After a few months I got transferred to different office that was even further away, I was driving dead tired and had a lot of trouble keeping my eyes open but I was only about ten minutes away so I figured what else I am I going to do, I must have let my eyes close from just 2 or 3 seconds and my car drifted to the side to the rumble strips, I jolted awake and straightened the car out but it scared me so much, my heart was racing after that and I could not believe that happened to me. I went right in and told my supervisor this is my last week, can't do this and college and that was it. I unplugged the phone at night when I got home and told my cousin not to give my number out or have your friends call the house at night. Very scary, I was lucky.
When I was in college I had a full time job with really bad hours, had to beat work at 4am most mornings so I had to leave home a little after 3am. I thought I was young and in shape and can handle the full time job and going to college full time but I should have known better, my uncle and my cousin moved in to the place I was staying at when I started work which made things much worse. My cousin gave out my home number to his friends(even though he had a cell phone) and his friends would call him up to 11pm at night so I would get woken up and could not get back to sleep and did not want to be that guy to tell my cousin to stop having people call the house at night so I got very little to almost no sleep for days/nights on end. After a few months I got transferred to different office that was even further away, I was driving dead tired and had a lot of trouble keeping my eyes open but I was only about ten minutes away so I figured what else I am I going to do, I must have let my eyes close from just 2 or 3 seconds and my car drifted to the side to the rumble strips, I jolted awake and straightened the car out but it scared me so much, my heart was racing after that and I could not believe that happened to me. I went right in and told my supervisor this is my last week, can't do this and college and that was it. I unplugged the phone at night when I got home and told my cousin not to give my number out or have your friends call the house at night. Very scary, I was lucky.
02-02-18, 08:54 PM
#14
Lexus Fanatic
Thread Starter
iTrader: (20)
my purpose in posting this thread was not to analyze what happened in my girlfriend's son's case.
UDel and corradoMR2 thank you for sharing your experiences. i think most of us have driven tired and perhaps many have had scary moments, i know i have.
my purpose in posting this thread was so that hopefully we don't have another thread like this.
UDel and corradoMR2 thank you for sharing your experiences. i think most of us have driven tired and perhaps many have had scary moments, i know i have.
my purpose in posting this thread was so that hopefully we don't have another thread like this.
