Can you be "spatially disoriented" if you are driving at night in heavy rain?

[N918KT]

With heavy rain falling down, the reflection of water on the pavement when shined with your headlights, the blinding lights of oncoming traffic in the other lane, and the fact that it is pitch black when there is no traffic nearby, is it possible to experience "spatial disorientation" in pitch black at night, in heavy rain while driving? Or at the least just be disoriented?

 

[Velocity173]

Yep. That's why I only drive with NVGs at night.

 

[rottydaddy]

I guess you haven't been driving very long.
Don't forget streetlights, traffic lights, flashing lights on barriers,lighted signs and billboards, huge geysers of water on your windshield from opposing traffic... etc., etc. It's a million times harder (for me, anyway) to drive in heavy precip at night than during the day.
I've never gotten dizzy or lost the ability to keep the car straight or whatever, but I've nearly lost my way- and the roadway- many times in such conditions. But it's very different from the sensory illusions experienced in flight, and easier to deal with. I'm actually not bad at it, after nearly 30 years driving in the Northeast.
Just slowing down helps tremendously.

 

[RJM62]

I'm not sure "spatial disorientation" is how I'd put it, but I remember one time when I was driving at night on the Taconic State Parkway, and the rain started coming down so hard that I simply couldn't see where I was going. I slowed down, put on the flashers, and found a safe place to pull over and wait it out. It really was that bad.

If this is something that happens to you a lot, you may want to see an ophthalmologist or a good optometrist about it. I know a few people who have to wear glasses only for driving at night. I'm not sure what they correct, but apparently it's something that's not uncommon.

-Rich

 

[douglas393]

I'm not sure "spatial disorientation" is how I'd put it, but I remember one time when I was driving at night on the Taconic State Parkway at night, and the rain started coming down so hard that I simply couldn't see where I was going. I slowed down, put on the flashers, and found a safe place to pull over and wait it out. It really was that bad.

If this is something that happens to you a lot, you may want to see an ophthalmologist or a good optometrist about it. I know a few people who have to wear glasses only for driving at night. I'm not sure what they correct, but apparently it's something that's not uncommon.

-Rich

I have gotten "spatially disoriented" driving on the Taconic during the day.

 

[PilotAlan]

...it's very different from the sensory illusions experienced in flight, and easier to deal with.

That.
There are illusions that can get you when driving, but driving is really bad weather is more analogous to VFR into IMC than it is to spatial disorientation.

Driving is two dimensional, you can't acquire a false horizon and be in a dive, bank, or climb when you think you're level (you can lose visibility of the road markings, but that's more like VFR into IMC).
With spatial disorientation, you think you KNOW exactly what you're doing, but you're wrong. Kind of like in snow where you think you know exactly where the road is until you suddenly find yourself in the ditch.

Another simile would be when you are on a slight curving highway and there's on oncoming car in the frontage road, and you think for just a second that there's a car coming straight at you. That's like falsely acquiring marker lights on two aircraft and thinking it's lights on one aircraft very close.

 

[Jeff Oslick]

I've had something like that happen to me to some degree on the eastern approach to the Tappan Zee bridge in NY once, about 20 years ago, in driving rain. The Tappan Zee is legendary for it's lack of adequate maintenance, and at time, during on the construction phases that always seemed to last a minimum of 5 years with no significant observable work done, they had not re-striped the road to any visible degree. Driving rain, dark night, no lane markers on a curving stretch of road, approaching a bridge that is a couple hundred feet above the water. I think I slowed to about 5 mph in an attempt to "divine" my way to the bridge. It was pretty late at night, around midnight, so not enough other traffic to guide the way.

 

[N918KT]

That.
There are illusions that can get you when driving, but driving is really bad weather is more analogous to VFR into IMC than it is to spatial disorientation.

Driving is two dimensional, you can't acquire a false horizon and be in a dive, bank, or climb when you think you're level (you can lose visibility of the road markings, but that's more like VFR into IMC).
With spatial disorientation, you think you KNOW exactly what you're doing, but you're wrong. Kind of like in snow where you think you know exactly where the road is until you suddenly find yourself in the ditch.

Another simile would be when you are on a slight curving highway and there's on oncoming car in the frontage road, and you think for just a second that there's a car coming straight at you. That's like falsely acquiring marker lights on two aircraft and thinking it's lights on one aircraft very close.

Thanks for the analogy Alan. I noticed that when driving at night in the rain, the car headlights reflect the wet pavement on the road and you really cannot see the road centerline. Also when there is an oncoming car from the opposite lane with its headlights on, the headlights make it seems for a few seconds that the car is coming straight at you, plus the other car's headlights can blind you and you lose sight or a second or two on where you are in relationship to the position on the road.

 

[1600vw]

Thanks for the analogy Alan. I noticed that when driving at night in the rain, the car headlights reflect the wet pavement on the road and you really cannot see the road centerline. Also when there is an oncoming car from the opposite lane with its headlights on, the headlights make it seems for a few seconds that the car is coming straight at you, plus the other car's headlights can blind you and you lose sight or a second or two on where you are in relationship to the position on the road.

............This boils down to training..................

You should have been taught you never look at the road center line when coming into on coming traffic at night.

You watch the right hand side of the road and follow the white line. That is one of the reasons this line is there.

It shows you the edge of the driving surface and it gives you a reference when driving into on coming traffic.

Never look down the center of the raod when coming into oncoming traffic at night, look to the right and down, follow the white line and you will never again have this problem.

 

[RJM62]

............This boils down to training..................

You should have been taught you never look at the road center line when coming into on coming traffic at night.

You watch the right hand side of the road and follow the white line. That is one of the reasons this line is there.

It shows you the edge of the driving surface and it gives you a reference when driving into on coming traffic.

Never look down the center of the raod when coming into oncoming traffic at night, look to the right and down, follow the white line and you will never again have this problem.

It's especially important nowadays, when more and more drivers seem to consider it too much of a bother to dim their high-beams for oncoming traffic.

-Rich

 

[Geico266]

Yep. That's why I only drive with NVGs at night.

We need pictures of that.

I've gotten SD as a passenger on a commercial plane. I would have bet the farm the plane was doing aileron rolls. The only way I knew it was SD is none of the other passengers were freaking out. It was surreal. No, I hadn't been drinking... up to that point anyway.

 

[John Baker]

There is a very dangerous hallucination that can happen when your driving while tired at night. It is not spatial disorientation where your body convinces you that your doing something entirely different than what you are actually doing, it's a visual experience where you feel like your driving through a tunnel. Naturally it's called "tunneling".

When you experience that, you are not all that far away from falling asleep, or finding yourself in an actual wreck.

The antidote is to find a lighted area and pull off the road, or pull over and let someone else drive if you have a more awake passenger. It is imperative that you stop driving as soon as you can.

-John

 

[Maxmosbey]

If this is something that happens to you a lot, you may want to see an ophthalmologist or a good optometrist about it. I know a few people who have to wear glasses only for driving at night. I'm not sure what they correct, but apparently it's something that's not uncommon.

-Rich

About four years ago I started getting Ocular Migraines. For a while I didn't know what they were. I went to the opthomologist and got diagnosed with it. There isn't anything they can do about it, but when I get one it is very disorienting. One note, if you get diagnosed with optical migraines you probably won't be flying airplanes anymore. The important thing is that if you are getting them you probably shouldn't be flying airplanes anymore.

 

[gkainz]

I got SD on I-15 south out of St George, UT one morning. Highway winds and descends into a canyon with multicolor layers of rock on the walls running at an angle, combined with bright dawn sun at a low angle. I had to pull over and stop for a while to clear my head.

 

[cowman]

If you can't see the road then for god sakes stop driving !!

If you get disoriented somehow, stop, open the door and tap your foot against the road. Yup, there's down.

 

[ARFlyer]

We get heavy rainstorms around here a lot. So I know exactly what you guys are talking about. This is why I don't drive I-30 in heavy rain on my way to work. A interstate mostly full of semis, poor lane markings, collapsing roadway and heavy rain do not mix. It got so bad once that the only reason I knew I was on the interstate still was the trailer lights of a semi in front of me. From that day on I take the old US Highway during heavy rains and it only adds 5 mins to my trip.

You know your in Arkansas when the interstate has huge cracks and potholes.

 

[azure]

You know your in Arkansas when the interstate has huge cracks and potholes.

I wouldn't - I'd think I was in Michigan.

 

[ChrisK]

With heavy rain falling down, the reflection of water on the pavement when shined with your headlights, the blinding lights of oncoming traffic in the other lane, and the fact that it is pitch black when there is no traffic nearby, is it possible to experience "spatial disorientation" in pitch black at night, in heavy rain while driving? Or at the least just be disoriented?

It helps me to focus on the stripe on the right (and my relative position to that stripe) when I encounter oncoming traffic at night. Headlights tend to make one veer toward them for some reason.

 

[ARFlyer]

I wouldn't - I'd think I was in Michigan.

Well most of the your horrible roads are caused by weather, right? Our horrible roads are caused by lack of care and money in the state vault.

I could be wrong and your roads are horrible because of the same reason.

 

[Threefingeredjack]

Why not???? I have been somewhat disoriented in heavy snow at night flashing by in the headlights. (I have been spatially disoriented in establishments that serve adult beverages too.)

 

[ChrisK]

Well most of the your horrible roads are caused by weather, right? Our horrible roads are caused by lack of care and money in the state vault.

I could be wrong and your roads are horrible because of the same reason.

Urban legend perhaps, but as a Michigander I was always told that poor roads were due to poor quality of materials, and that construction unions lobbied against better materials. This could, of course, be total BS, but it shows you what people in Michigan might think =)

 

[DeeG]

You watch the right hand side of the road and follow the white line. That is one of the reasons this line is there.

It shows you the edge of the driving surface and it gives you a reference when driving into on coming traffic.

I try and do that. Except when there is no white line on the right side. They are rebuilding a big stretch of I-90 over Snoqualime Pass in WA. Hit and miss on any reasonable lane markings. So much re-striping being done that in some places, you can't really tell which ones are 'in use'. That and wipers that should have been replaced before the trip.....eeekkk!!!

 

[tinerj]

Me: "Doc, Is there any medical reason I shouldn't drive my SUV full of grandchildren at night, in the rain, in heavy traffic?"

Doc: "No, you have no medical condition that would make that inadvisable."

Me: I think, then there should be no problem with me flying as LSA in day VFR conditions out of a lightly used airport with at most one passenger.