Asleep At The Wheel: Shutting Down

Shutting Down

Nate Pickett, a 23-year-old insulation sales rep, had just finished lunch and was leaving Tooele, Utah, in his small pickup truck, headed for his next job. It was about 2 p.m., and he was driving on a long stretch of highway when his head began to bob and his eyelids grew heavy and started to close.

Pickett frequently drove while drowsy. He was married, working full-time and attending school part-time. He and his co-workers joked about the times when they had caught themselves falling asleep at the wheel. But that day in October 2004, Pickett was unusually sleepy and decided to pull off at the next exit and nap. What Pickett didn't realize is that although parts of his brain were relatively alert, other parts were already shutting down. Sleep had crept up on him.

Before Pickett reached the off ramp, he dozed off and drifted to the right. He was jolted awake only when his tires thumped along the rumble strips on the edge of the highway. Adrenaline pumping, he was suddenly alert and careening off the road at 70 miles an hour. Pickett stomped the brake and swung the steering wheel first left, then right, trying to regain control.

"It was too late," he recalls. "The cab of my truck was just thrown to the ground." Strapped in by his seat belt, he held the steering wheel tightly while his truck rolled five times down an embankment. "All I could hear was smashing metal and breaking glass."