Luckily, very luckily in fact, we weren’t injured and TBH the car wasn’t badly damaged but it was a frightening moment – the only time it’s ever happened and I know it was because I was tired on the drive back on a long hot day on a 50mph speed restricted section of motorway where large concrete blocks have been piled up to line the edge of the motorway – the driving was monotonous, tedious in narrow lanes, quite busy as usual and I was, as normal, tired from it being a fasting day. What I have to take away from this is that I should abandon my fasting on days when I have a reasonably long drive – this was only a 1hr 40mins but it came on top of a long day out, the sun baking down, boring driving conditions where you have to concentrate hard. I can’t believe we were so lucky – it happened so fast – the first I knew was the sound of the bang (my wife was also asleep in the passenger seat) as the front wing hit the concrete block and the car bounded back across the first lane and slightly into the second – fortunately there was nothing in the middle lane – this could have ended very badly and all down to me not having enough awareness that the fasting does – as I well know – leave me noticeably more tired than normal – it’s something I really have to take more seriously and take into account when considering what I am doing. I didn’t feel like I was taking any risks – it never crossed my mind when I got in to drive back that I was anywhere near tired enough or susceptible – I wasn’t when I set off but clearly the conditions (and my condition as a result of fasting) put me at risk. Maybe there is a lesson in this for others too – that’s why – in spite of the embarrassment I feel – I am sharing an account of what happened to me. Take care when driving on a fast day, be smart and factor it in.

I don’t think fasting itself is dangerous for me – I made an error of judgement that didn’t take into account everything – the effect of fasting on top of a long driving and the hot weather (and my air conditioning in the car is not working – it’s going in to the garage today to have that looked at) and the fact that this year I have been very physically active as I have taken on 2 plots on an allotment and they had both been neglected for over a year so there has been a lot of hard physical work to do getting weeds out and digging over the ground – this comes on top of a string of more late nights than usual – I have never slept very much – 4-6 hours is typical for me and seems to be getting less as I get older so YES – I learned that I MUST be smarter and take into account all the factors – and that includes fasting – when it comes to driving – I decided I will NOT fast on any days like this where I have to drive. I had a full blood test in the past month as part of looking into prostate cancer and was told that only 0.3% of the population of men my age have all there individual blood results (there must be over 30 measurements) inside the expected ranges but I’m not surprised – I have always been very fit through exercise and never out of shape – my swimming injury just over 14 months ago (rotator-cuff) is taking a very long time to heal (I will probably need surgery – that decision will be made in 3 months time) and because I was not able to swim and had put on only a few kg I decided to do 5:2 – not just for the weight loss but for all the other benefits – I feel committed to 5:2 for life. I keep telling myself I must change my lifestyle to get more sleep – I just wake up early and have to get up and do things – regardless of what time I go to bed – when I do go to bed I am very rarely tired and have to read every night before going to sleep – I am a voracious reader so always have something to read – I never read fiction – I always read to learn something new – I have always been on the hyperactive end of the activity spectrum. When I do put my head down my wife says I go to sleep almost instantly and I feel like I have a good quality of sleep because I never moan about feeling tired – I did notice straight away when I started 5:2 that I am more tired than normal (in the forums a lot of other people have made reference to this – it is quite common) – so – I have to look at the big picture and realise that I have to take this into account and my decision now is never to undertake a long drive on a fasting day – it’s not a problem to delay my fasting day until the next day.

Actually, when I got in the car it never crossed my mind that I was tired – I drink plenty of fluids when fasting – it helps stave off any feelings of hunger I might have – it was, I think, the accumulation of a number of different factors that put me at risk when driving.

Yes – there could have been a tragic outcome – that’s why I posted the story! Hopefully, others will realise that tiredness from fasting is something extra that really ought to be considered carefully when driving.