On one occasion I was driving my little Peugeot home and I could feel my eyes beginning to close. I was falling asleep at the wheel and every time I looked up the car in front had got closer.
It’s as if you know what is happening but you can’t do anything to stop it — your brain is shutting down. I can remember the sound of the crash and then everything came to a sudden stop.
I gave my details to a young couple in the other vehicle. The damage wasn’t too bad. But I never heard back from that couple — they probably weren’t insured. The following week I was getting on a plane and telling one of the pilots. He said it had happened to him.
I asked him where he was when he had fallen asleep, expecting him to say it was the A127 or some motorway. He replied: “Coming in over the Isle of Wight.”
Somehow that wasn’t very reassuring to hear.
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Alex Best is the former wife of George Best. Her autobiography, Always Alex, is in shops at £17.99