By and large you can do something about driving sleepy: (1) take a nap before driving, (2) call someone for a ride and get your car later- like you'd do if you were drunk, (3) take public transportation, (4) ask someone to drive you home in your car, etc. Yeah most of these options are inconvenient and to be honest they are not always an option but these are the same alternatives you would do if you were drunk. People just don't take DWS (driving while sleepy) seriously but it is AS DANGEROUS AS DUI (as evidenced by the OP's actions). According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, sleepiness may cause over 100,000 crashes every year. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA) Foundation for Traffic Safety, the effect of being awake for 17 hours causes a performance on psychomotor coordination tests equivalent to that of someone who has a blood alcohol level of 0.05 percent; if they stayed awake a full 24 hours, their test performance equaled a blood alcohol level of 0.10. Some states consider you intoxicated at 0.08; so drivers who have been awake for 24 hours would fail sobriety tests. I hear what you're saying glassisass and because of that New Jersey passed 'Maggie's Law' in 2003. It allows sleep deprived drivers who cause accidents and have been awake more than 24 hours to be charged with vehicular homicide. The law also provides liability for companies that require employees to keep such hours. Bottom line: DON'T DRIVE WHILE DROWSY/SLEEPY/TIRED!!! /end rant/

I doubt the OP was awake for 17+ hours. It was probably just a long day at work. And the difference between drunk driving and driving while sleepy is that you can choose not to drink, but you can't choose not to be sleepy. I'm guessing you've never had a job that you have to commute to. There's always stuff you can do to keep yourself awake (drink caffeine, keep the AC on, play loud music, stop in a parking lot and run around to get your heart-rate up), and you should do those things if you're tired and driving, but sometimes there really is no alternative to driving home.

I think we can all agree that it is not the best idea to drive when you are sleepy. However, there are not always other options, and in this case the accident does not seem to have been caused by her sleepiness, but rather by the realistic-looking lawn ornament... this same thing could have happened to an alert driver.

So you're saying the only possible solution is to drive sleepy, even if it makes you dead? Shitty choice, there. I'd think a person could come up with other options, if they tried. OP is lucky they didn't turn into a hood ornament over that lawn ornament.

Oh shit, I just now realized I'm dead. Oh wait... Aback, until you live in a suburb, or someplace even more rural, where you have to drive 45+ minutes to get to work, you don't really get to talk. It's not like you get in the car and think, "Nap time!" You get yourself a coffee, you get into your music, you do whatever keeps you awake. And if you're a normal, healthy person, it will probably work. I can agree that if you've been awake 17 hours you should find another option. However, everyone who's just gotten off of work at their 9-5 job is exhausted, but most of them still have to drive home. It's why rush hour is just so much fun. That is life, my friend.

letitbe56, my uncle was killed on the interstate by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel. My aunt is still in a wheelchair, a decade later. Tell me again about your "life experience" which tells you that driving drowsy really isn't all that bad.

I don't think letitbe was saying that driving tired isn't bad. It just sometimes is life that you are going to be sleepy. There is a big difference between being tired and passing out at the wheel, though.

Seriously. I really wish the moderators would screen for proper spelling and grammar. I especially hate it when they let through FMLs that are so badly worded it makes me cringe (like the one where the girl smells her boyfriend's armpit.)

agreed...you get a gold star for spelling, op gets to crash.

I thought that grammar mistake was funnier than the FML.