we are thinking of driving straight through from Maine. 24hr drive

[UConnJack]

You are the only one who can say how you would be after 24 hours of driving. Despite what some on this thread say, there are many people who can easily go 24 hours with no sleep with little affect. On the other hand, there are people who can't go more than 12 without dozing off. I personally can only go 18 hours or so before I hit my limit, but then again, I can function quite well with only 3-4 hours of sleep. Just be honest with yourself while driving and be prepared to stop if you feel drowsy, don't force it just to make good time.

You need to clarify whether one person will be doing the driving, or if you will be doing it in shifts. If you have someone to share the duties with, go for it, I see no problem. I don't know about you, but I can sleep pretty soundly in a car. If you can too, a 4-6 hours of sleep while someone else is driving is plenty to reset and switch off with another driver. Starting in the evening is the only way to go, however, you don't want to be driving the tail end of the trip at night.

And consider doing it over 2-days on the way back, especially if you don't have a 2nd driver. After a week at WDW, you will be more tired that when you left and won’t have the added benefit of adrenaline.

 

[jakenjess]

We did this a few years ago. It was my DH, our two kids, my DSIL and myself. My DH, DSIL and I took turns driving. One of us would sleep, one would drive, and the other would keep the driver company. I don't think I could have done it with just two drivers. It took us about 26 hours down (from Portland) and about 27 hours back. We had to take a detour on the way back because of bad weather.

Would I do it again? Well, I never say never, but we've flown every time since then! I would only drive down if we really had to, and I think I would want to break it into two days. It's really exhausting to go straight through.

 

[Fudbutter]

Aren't there rules that long haul truck drivers need to adhere to? If so, wouldn't that be the limit as these are the rules for the major league drivers?

All in all though, it seems to me that it is irresponsible. All it takes is one tragedy and the 1,000 trips before that in the same condition that came out OK become moot. These are lethal weapons that we are piloting. Humans are not meant to drive that long.

Just my $0.02

 

[Ham Ham]

Aren't there rules that long haul truck drivers need to adhere to? If so, wouldn't that be the limit as these are the rules for the major league drivers?

All in all though, it seems to me that it is irresponsible. All it takes is one tragedy and the 1,000 trips before that in the same condition that came out OK become moot. These are lethal weapons that we are piloting. Humans are not meant to drive that long.

Just my $0.02

The law applies to professional drivers, depending on the size, weight of the vehicle and what they are transporting. They keep logs sometimes they have a couple of sets of books they juggle

Driving a passenger car you are under no such law.

 

[dburg30]

Let us all know when you will be traveling so we can stay off I-95 during that time. It's ridiculous to pick people's lives at risk to save the cost of a cheap hotel room to sleep in overnight. If you have children of your own driving along, that is negligent in my eyes. Not to mention you'll have to sleep for 8 hours when you get to WDW so you'll have the energy to go to the parks or else the kids will be raring to go and you'll be so tired and grouchy. What a vacation that would be.

Well I've seen people driving that I really dont think were anything but sucky drivers. They scare me more then what this person is planning. I've driven shifts on a long trip and we had no problems. But you should have a plan 'B' and dont hesitate to pull over and either sleeep in a rest area, or get a hotel if you or anyone else driving gets too tired. Be willing to admit it and put plan B into action and i dont think you'll have any issues.. It will just depend on the individual person. I know someone that if it's over an hour away, we joke that he'll have to get a hotel. And then I know a lot that can drive forEVER it seems like, and seriously, they are alert and just fine, with no help.

Just be safe and smart..

 

[Ham Ham]

Let us all know when you will be traveling so we can stay off I-95 during that time. It's ridiculous to pick people's lives at risk to save the cost of a cheap hotel room to sleep in overnight. If you have children of your own driving along, that is negligent in my eyes. Not to mention you'll have to sleep for 8 hours when you get to WDW so you'll have the energy to go to the parks or else the kids will be raring to go and you'll be so tired and grouchy. What a vacation that would be.

Looks like this is something you don't approve of. Your choice to do so. I'm surprised you get behind the wheel at all considering how dangerous driving is.

A little harsh in my opinion , but you should see I how I feel about folks who drive distracted and who can't navigate their cars and drive poorly, they are a bigger threat to us on the roads.

Driving is risky no matter where or when you go.

Folks driving long distance who have a person they can rotate with are not an bigger of a threat to public safety than the person in the huge SUV on the cell phone who are cannot back out of a parking space due to inept depth perception challenges.

 

[Fudbutter]

The law applies to professional drivers, depending on the size, weight of the vehicle and what they are transporting. They keep logs sometimes they have a u of sets of books they juggle

Driving a passenger car you are under no such law.

You miss my point, I'm not talking about law, I'm talking about common sense. I'm looking for what the DOT opines and/or stipulates is safe.

I agree that someone talking on a cell phone in any driving situation is even more dangerous, but if your DD13 is T-boned by a driver who is nodding out, how would you feel then? Not someone who simply missed a stop sign, a human error but someone who wasn't alert enough to notice it because he/she chose to take the chance of driving in that condition.

Just so you know where I am coming from: A family of 4 from my neighborhood were driving to Florida some years ago. They tried to drive through rather than staying over one night. The Father was driving. The Mom and one daughter survived. I never forgot that in my adult life as a driver responsible not only for my passengers, but for everyone I share the road with.

 

[leahjade]

The original poster should have a police officer give him a reflex test after his 20th hour driving and see how fast he reacts. He sounds like a very immature (I would say young but there are a lot of teenage drivers who have more sense) person who is in denial of proven facts. The points posted in this thread are not just people's opinions. Reminds of the drunk drivers who swear they can handle a car after their 5th drink - it's only the other drivers who are impaired. It could never happen to him. I just wish he would post when he will be traveling so others could be warned.

 

[Ham Ham]

You miss my point, I'm not talking about law, I'm talking about common sense. I'm looking for what the DOT opines and/or stipulates is safe.

I agree that someone talking on a cell phone in any driving situation is even more dangerous, but if your DD13 is T-boned by a driver who is nodding out, how would you feel then? Not someone who simply missed a stop sign, a human error but someone who wasn't alert enough to notice it because he/she chose to take the chance of driving in that condition.

Just so you know where I am coming from: A family of 4 from my neighborhood were driving to Florida some years ago. They tried to drive through rather than staying over one night. The Father was driving. The Mom and one daughter survived. I never forgot that in my adult life as a driver responsible not only for my passengers, but for everyone I share the road with.

Christmas of 2006 a family of 5 from the Torotno area was driving overnight to Florida and were hit head on by in Central, PA by a local drunk driver going the wrong way down the road. Father and 2 children, were killed. Mother and Daughter survived.
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20061226/accident_pickering_0612276?hub=TorontoHome


Tragedies can happen anywhere at any time I agree with you that we must be responsible and not drive when we have less than all of our faculties.

I do not advocate one person driving many hours anywhere.

My wife and I have driven to Disney non-stop alternating every 2 hours and it worked out great. We also agreed before that if we felt too tired to drive or weather became an issue we would stop and get a motel.

Like any parent, if any of my family we involved in a tragedy I would be quite upset Whether the driver nodded off or were distracted or just incompetent. No reason would make it less of a tragedy.

Not clear on your story about the family driving to Florida. Where they hit or involved in a collision that was their fault?

 

[Alexander]

The original poster should have a police officer give him a reflex test after his 20th hour driving and see how fast he reacts. He sounds like a very immature (I would say young but there are a lot of teenage drivers who have more sense) person who is in denial of proven facts. The points posted in this thread are not just people's opinions. Reminds of the drunk drivers who swear they can handle a car after their 5th drink - it's only the other drivers who are impaired. It could never happen to him. I just wish he would post when he will be traveling so others could be warned.

Judgemental are we? OP never indicated how many people would be driving. For all we know there could be 4 or 6 drivers traveling with him. Just to warn you, DH will be driving to Daytona on Wednesday, February 13th. We are in Upstate NY and he'll drive through to Jacksonville, 18-hours straight through. He'll travel I-81 and then cross over to I-95 in Virginia. Hope that helps you feel safe!

 

[leahjade]

kind of strange how good judgment is now deemed a bad quality to have -every decision is made by thinking of one's self and not others. Saving a few bucks by not staying in a hotel overnight is not worth a possible accident to most people. This is not an opinion issue like disagreeing on which resort to book, this can be a life and death decision. I will be driving with teens whom I want to show responsible behavior and don't want them to "do as I say, not as I do." Sadly, these kind of tragedies happen every day because of someone's negligence.

 

[wee-haggis]

This was an Australian article but I'm sure it applies anywhere

Why does fatigue cause accidents?

The effects of fatigue on driver performance have been documented in numerous studies in which subjects were required to perform driving tasks after long hours of wakefulness. Fatigue manifests itself in:


slower reaction times: fatigue increases the time taken to react in an emergency;
reduced vigilance: subjects perform worse on attention-based tasks when sleep-deprived. For example, a fatigued driver will be slower to notice oncoming hazards, such as roadworks or a railway crossing; and
information processing: fatigue reduces both the ability to process information and the accuracy of short-term memory. Thus, a fatigued driver may not remember the previous few minutes of driving and will be slower in evaluating oncoming hazards.
Related site: Development of measures of fatigue: Using an alcohol comparison to validate the effects of fatigue on performance
Compares the effectiveness of different tests for measuring fatigue.
(Australian Transport Safety Bureau)
The Centre for Sleep Research at Flinders University in South Australia has likened fatigue-induced impairments to those caused by alcohol: a person kept awake for 17 hours will perform at a standard comparable to that of someone with a blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05 per cent (the legal limit in Australia). After 24 hours without sleep, a person will have capabilities similar to someone with a BAC of 0.10 per cent.

But probably the greatest hazard posed by fatigue is the risk of sleep itself. A fatigued driver who remains awake will probably be able to take some (perhaps belated) action to avert a crash, but one who has fallen asleep must rely solely on luck for survival.

 

[MrMarv]

Since WDW is just over 1,400 miles from Portland, leaving Portland at night would be mandatory, which could wreak havoc with your body clock.

I'd shoot for spending the night somewhere in South Carolina; Columbia, SC is 450+ miles from WDW, and approximtely 975 miles from Portland.

 

[LIIRISHMAN]

This thread can bring out the fact that people will do what they want to do and that's why laws are made to control our behavior in a civilized society. I have driven to WDW 3x driving from L.I., N.Y. ranging from 18 hrs to a 21 hr trip. The drive going down is filled with happy thoughts and adrenalin along with a lot of Caffiene in my veins. The drive coming back is something to dread and this is where people can go over the boundaries of safety. A solo driver can be lulled to sleep as he travels up I-95 along a highway that seems endless. I know most here who post on the boards are good people all I ask is that any one driving show good judgment when it comes to driving.

 

[Ham Ham]

This thread can bring out the fact that people will do what they want to do and that's why laws are made to control our behavior in a civilized society. I have driven to WDW 3x driving from L.I., N.Y. ranging from 18 hrs to a 21 hr trip. The drive going down is filled with happy thoughts and adrenalin along with a lot of Caffiene in my veins. The drive coming back is something to dread and this is where people can go over the boundaries of safety. A solo driver can be lulled to sleep as he travels up I-95 along a highway that seems endless. I know most here who post on the boards are good people all I ask is that any one driving show good judgment when it comes to driving.

I like how you think brother.

 

[MrMarv]

So do I-----very nicely stated!!!!!

 

[snowbunny]

Why?...I am from southern Maine, we are flying nonstop on Airtrain for $109 each way. That's three tanks of gas. Two hours on the plane. Why would you do that to yourself?
This is the kind of thing that makes me feel all warm and snuggly about trusting my life to a professional pilot and not being on the road.

 

[JonS99]

Test also would show that the average senior citizen has slowed reaction time, should we villify them for endangering people when they drive to Wal-Mart???

 

[maxiesmom]

Test also would show that the average senior citizen has slowed reaction time, should we villify them for endangering people when they drive to Wal-Mart???

If a person is old enough that they loose most of their driving skills, then yes, their license should be taken away from them. Many families, mine included, have had to make that decision.

And if you know you can lesson the risk of causing an accident by getting some sleep, why wouldn't you? Why engage in risky behavior when it is avoidable?

 

[JonS99]

If a person is old enough that they loose most of their driving skills, then yes, their license should be taken away from them. Many families, mine included, have had to make that decision.

And if you know you can lesson the risk of causing an accident by getting some sleep, why wouldn't you? Why engage in risky behavior when it is avoidable?

So when it comes to senior citizens, you want to judge it case by case, but when it comes to whether a person can handle 4 hours or 20 hours behind the wheel, you want to grab a broad brush... Based on the opinions of some here, ALL senior citizens should not drive because SOME are unsafe..