Asleep at the wheel. Literally.

[Peppergirl]

Let me set the scene.

I'm exiting off the highway and am sitting at the red light at the off ramp. It's one of those double laned left turn lanes, being as it's a highly traveled road.

The light turns green and both lanes begin to go, except for the car that was in front of the car in front of me. Make sense?

No flashers or anything, so people begin to drive around and some are blowing their horns.

So,there I sit waiting for an opening to go around the car, and I happen to notice some horrified stares from people in the cars who had actually made it around the stopped car.

I finally get an opening and go to pass the car and look over. I suddenly realize why people were staring and slowing down.

There is a woman inside who looks to be in her 30s. Her head is leaned back, eyes closed, mouth hanging open.

A chill ran up my spine. By the time I had managed to get around her, the light became red again. I thought very seriously about going up to the car, but decided against it. I'm FAR from a chicken-shit, but I think I was just too shocked and didn't know what to think.

I grabbed my phone and called 911. I told the dispatcher the issue and managed to rattle off a description of the car and was able to look in my rearview mirror and read off the plate number. (Yay for backwards-reading ability AND front plates in my state).

I advised that the person appeared to be sleeping but that I just wasn't sure. She advised me that I was the 3rd phone call and that officers were on their way.

I was going to stop at the grocery store on my way home, but I was too creeped out.

I figure it was one of two things:

1. She was stopped at the red light and just fell asleep, either super tired, drunk or on some type of drug.

*Note - brake lights were NOT illuminated. The car appeared to be in park, making it even weirder.

or

2. She had some type of attack and was unconscious or...dead.



Sounds crazy, but I can't get the image out of my head. I wish I knew what happened to her. I really hope she's ok.

[Sonoma]

I was actually in the same situation a few years ago, except it was just a 2-lane road, so we had to go into the oncoming trafffic to get around her. She had fallen asleep/passed out, I still don't know which, at a stop sign.

Just glad they were already stopped when it happened.

[Megg]

Well, if you Google <make/color of car>+<intersection>+<police department>, it will likely show you if the woman was not okay, at least. If you don't see any news stories or anything, she was probably sleeping. How terrible! I, too, hope she just had a really long day or something. The fact that the car was in park is actually a good thing, I hope. Perhaps she just wanted to "rest her eyes" a second, put the car in park, and boom! Out like a light!

[LillFilly]

That creeps me out, especially when an elderly person is sitting in a parked car in my lot asleep waiting for another family member...I'm just never sure if they'll wake up!