Sleeping whilst driving...

[sdes]

No, not the driver, the passenger(s) of course! We are new to our California, and so far loving it, but we want to do some long journeys - mostly European next year.

Now, given there's a bed in the back, or can be, can anyone tell me if it possible to have one asleep in the back whilst the other drives - airlines have lay flat seats in an aircraft that you just stay belted into whilst sleeping - but is that possible / legal with the California? Is there some clever additional belt of some kind that makes it possible?

Obviously in the past there were fewer rules and regs, I remember my brother and I just had a couple of mattresses popped in the back of our parent's VW variant and off we went to the S of France or wherever.

Thanks for any pointers.

Stephen

 

[teeboy]

Good idea, but I imagine the law to wear a seatbelt in the back has stopped such behaviour

If you did have a head on crash the sleeping passenger would launch forward like a torpedo.

T

 

[Martin]

Illegal or not, I personally would not like to risk it

 

[James]

Is it April 1st?

 

[MKRW]

I have to say I sat in the back the other day.

Pillow against the wardrobe, still strapped & sitting up next to my other 2 boys in the back (child seat and 5th seat)

I intend to be there for a good couple of hours as we drive to austria this winter.

 

[Andresz]

Despite the security concerns, my wife sometimes go to the back to sleep on the bench, when we are on the long drives between France and Poland. She is still strapped by the belt and lying down across, on the folded bench (not in the bed mode). In my 30 years driving experience I never have had an accident, but of course there is never any guarantee for the future. I think we may call it "calculated risk". This is for the crowdy continental Europe.
In Scandinavia when driving to Nordkapp (still from Paris) 3500 km one way, my wife and my son were often sleeping on the bed, when driving (it was a big camping car), but having speed limit of 70 km/h and meeting another car no more often than once per 2 hours of driving you can do it fairly securly.

As far as sleeping behind the wheel is concerned, my friend stopped this after the situation, when he was night driving from Paris to Warsaw, he suddenly saw huge pink steam locomotive on the same lane as his lane, but speeding in his direction.
Now he makes regular stop-overs.

 

[sdes]

Dear Forum users, thanks for the replies. Some more illuminating / helpful than others. No, your calendar is correct, its not April 1st.

Please note I was asking if there were any clever additional belts to make sleeping in the back whilst moving safe & legal. Clearly if you don't wear a belt and are in a head on you will in big trouble regardless of your initial orientation - in fact you might be marginally better off if traveling feet first - but this was not what I was either asking about or suggesting. My reference to traveling in the back of an old VW as a kid was purely to illustrate how 'carefree' we used to be re safety etc.

Ambulances for instance often travel at very high speeds with recumbent patients - presumably there are some sort of seat / bed belts that make this safe / legal, or do we assume that they simply risk launching their patient "like a torpedo" as one of the respondents put it, in the worst case scenario that they are involved in an accident.

I just hoped that with some 'seasoned' California owners reading the forum, someone might have been aware of a solution.

Stephen.

 

[Kitty A]

An interesting question as I often fantasise about crawling under the duvet in the back, so I looked it up on gov.uk.

2. When you don't need to wear a seat belt

You don’t need to wear a seat belt if you’re:

a driver who is reversing, or supervising a learner driver who is reversing
in a vehicle being used for police, fire and rescue services
a passenger in a trade vehicle and you’re investigating a fault
driving a goods vehicle on deliveries that is travelling no more than 50 metres between stops
a licensed taxi driver who is ‘plying for hire’ or carrying passengers

Medical exemptions
Your doctor may say you don’t have to wear a seat belt for a medical reason. They’ll give you a ‘Certificate of Exemption from Compulsory Seat Belt Wearing’.

You are also exempt if you drive a classic vehicle which was not originally fitted with seat belts.

Hope this clarifies the issue.

 

[teeboy]

I have to say I sat in the back the other day.

Pillow against the wardrobe, still strapped & sitting up next to my other 2 boys in the back (child seat and 5th seat)

I intend to be there for a good couple of hours as we drive to austria this winter.

That is the way to do it, you can recline the back seat a few degrees using the same mechanism as you use to lower it completely.

I would recline, seat belt on, duvet over the top plus pillow

I thought I was being quite light hearted with the torpedo comment.

T