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American Morning
Hitting the Road and Staying Awake
Aired May 25, 2001 - 10:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of Americans are hitting the road this Memorial Day weekend. So we'd thought we post some warning sings along your journey.
Consider this: Fatigue and drowsiness can be dangerous as being drunk when you're behind the wheel. So now there's an emphasis on detecting those factors before they lead to a crash.
Our technology correspondent Rick Lockridge is at a truck stop here in Atlanta with a closer look at that -- Rick, good morning.
RICK LOCKRIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
Well, who knows more about staying and alert during a long haul than long-hall trucker? And we're with Charles McClellan (ph). In fact, Steve Sorg, our photographer, is sitting on his bunk bed in the back.
You comfortable back there, Steve?
So, Charles, we're going to look at a -- first, we're going to look at a high-tech device. And let's go ahead and role that tape. And some of these devices now are under development. And the one that we're going to show here is called Alert Driver. And it's a little camera that mounts on the dashboard of your truck or car. And it keeps track of you while you are driving. And it monitors your eye movement.
And if it doesn't detect that you are looking around or if your eyelids are closed for more than a second, it will sound an alarm or vibrate or even emit a strong scent to wake you back up.
Now, as a professional driver, I know you really rely on your experience to help keep you awake, but if you could buy one of these for $500 and put it right there, do you think you would do it?
CHARLES MCCLELLAN, TRUCK DRIVER: Yes, for $500 -- if it came down a little bit, I probably would.
LOCKRIDGE: What is the secret, in your view, to staying awake and as alert as you can be when you're on the road? And I'm sure you get bored -- the same routes over and over. How do you do it?
MCCLELLAN: Well, the first thing is, plan your trip. Make sure that you have your trip planned accordingly. A lot of people have been working. And they're going to take off and go on their little trip. See how long you've been at work. Plan your stops. Plan your rest stops, your eat stops. Know where you are going to stop before you even take off.
Make sure your car is in good mechanical order.
LOCKRIDGE: Not overloaded.
MCCLELLAN: No, not overloaded. If you have children -- a lot of people are going to be taking their children on a lot of trips -- make sure that they are comfortable and they have things to keep them busy.
LOCKRIDGE: Now, you gave us a tip that I had never heard before, that when you go to one of these buffets where you're trying to feed the kids on the road, don't eat the chicken.
MCCLELLAN: Don't eat...
LOCKRIDGE: I don't want to get the chicken people mad, but why wouldn't you want to eat the chicken?
MCCLELLAN: Well, like -- a lot of people, whenever they stop, they would stop at these truck stops here, and there are a lot of major restaurants that have buffets. What they do is, they see these buffets and they try to put a hurting on them.
(LAUGHTER)
LOCKRIDGE: Put a hurting on them, huh?
MCCLELLAN: Just try to destroy them. And what they do go is, they go in there, and at every buffet they have chicken. And they are going to be driving at night. So what they do is, they load up on this chicken, and what happens is, is poultry has a habit of magnifying your fatigue factor. And it will actually make you more susceptible to drowsiness and dosing off.
LOCKRIDGE: So you don't eat the chicken when you're driving.
MCCLELLAN: Not afternoon, not if I'm going to driving at night.
LOCKRIDGE: And you plan your rest stops, so you know when you are going to stop. And that way, you don't get into this -- a bad cycle when you're driving when you really should be sleeping.
MCCLELLAN: Exactly. Exactly.
LOCKRIDGE: Charles, thanks very much for the use of your truck here at the Petro truck stop in Atlanta.
MCCLELLAN: You're very welcome.
LOCKRIDGE: Now, coming up at the 2:00 hour Eastern time, we're going to show you how you can use devices like this, a GPS receiver, to plot your trip a little more accurately. Live in Atlanta, I'm Rick Lockridge.
Daryn, let's go back to you.
KAGAN: All right, Rick, on your way back here to CNN, plan your stops and stay away from the chicken. Who knew?
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