Autor: Shelby Benavidez 

Abogado colaborador: Olivia Chapa

Americans drive more than any other country in the world with the average American driving more than 13,000 miles a year. Whether it’s commuting to work or just enjoying the scenery, it’s no secret that we spend a lot of time in the car. While we are aware of the dangers of distractions, intoxication, and fatigue, we rarely acknowledge the lesser-known condition called highway hypnosis, or “white line fever.” So, what is highway hypnosis? Let’s break it down. 

Understanding Highway Hypnosis 

What is Highway Hypnosis?  

Highway hypnosis refers to a situation when someone is travelling, often heading in the right direction, stopping at stop signs, responding to traffic, but they can’t remember doing it. 

Have you ever pulled into your driveway after a long day at work and realized you were daydreaming the entire time? If so, you have experienced highway hypnosis without ever realizing it. Unlike falling asleep, you weren’t unconscious, but your conscious attention was disengaged. Unfortunately, this presents unique legal and safety concerns.  

Olivia Chapa, Daniel Stark attorney describes it as, “Highway hypnosis is when a driver zones out and drives on autopilot. It usually happens during long, monotonous drives, especially on highways because there’s little variation or stimulation.” 

What is the Most Common Cause?  

Highway hypnosis is primarily caused by mental fatigue caused by long, uneventful drives. Stretches of highway with repetitive patterns such as dashed lines, straight roads, and unchanging scenery don’t stimulate the brain, leading the driver’s attention to shift inward and their conscious awareness to diminish.  

Sleep deprivation and nighttime driving are also major factors to this phenomenon, especially if driving is part of your everyday routine. After driving the same route over an extended period of time, it becomes muscle memory, and your brain doesn’t have to work as hard to get you where you’re going. Other factors that increase the risk of highway hypnosis include the use of cruise control, driving alone without conversation, and a general lack of exciting things to look at or variation in the road.   

Unlike traditional distracted driving, which involves a conscious redirection of attention to another task, highway hypnosis is the absence of attention altogether. While this is difficult to detect, it doesn’t prevent you from being held liable for a crash. Afterall, the definition of distracted driving is to shift your attention from the road. Daydreaming technically falls under that category, whether it was intentional or not.  

What Are the Symptoms?  

Highway hypnosis isn’t easy to detect in the moment, but people typically experience these symptoms:  

  • Memory loss of the last several miles driven  
  • Missing exits or turns  
  • Drifting out of lanes or abrupt lane correction  
  • Slower reaction times  
  • Heavy eyelids or frequent blinking  
  • Mental fog or detachment  

These can sneak up on you without warning. One moment you feel fine, and the next, your judgment and reaction time are significantly reduced. If there’s any question about your ability to drive safely, don’t get behind the wheel.  

Is the Driver Always Responsible?  

Liability Concerns  

Highway hypnosis adds another layer of difficulty if you are trying to file a claim after a car accident. When a driver isn’t fully present because they have zoned out and causes an accident, are they still responsible for the crash? In most cases, yes, the driver is still responsible.  

“You can still be liable,” Chapa said. “Zoning out isn’t considered a legal excuse. Drivers are expected to remain alert. Even if you don’t remember the crash, you’re responsible for maintaining control of your vehicle and driving in a safe manner.”  

Legally, driving while fatigued or inattentive, regardless of the cause, is considered negligence. Courts rarely accept the defense of “I didn’t realize I was driving that way.” This is because drivers have a duty of care to operate their vehicles safely and responsibly, and it is generally foreseeable that driving long distances without taking breaks may impair awareness.  

Even if highway hypnosis played a role, the driver’s prior conduct, such as failing to rest or ignoring signs of fatigue, can be scrutinized under comparative negligence. In wrongful death or personal injury lawsuits, defense teams seldom succeed in arguing involuntary mental states unless there is a verifiable medical condition involved.   

Unlike epilepsy or a heart attack, highway hypnosis is often considered preventable. Insurance companies also take attentiveness into account when determining fault, and claims may be reduced or denied if the insurer thinks that highway hypnosis contributed to the accident and could have been avoided.  

Employer Liability in Commercial Driving 

In commercial driving situations such as delivery drivers and long-haul drivers, employers are often at risk of being held liable for a crash. If a company mandates excessively long shifts, fails to provide mandatory rest periods, or imposes delivery quotas that encourage continuous driving, the employer can be liable for accidents caused by highway hypnosis.  

Under the legal doctrine of respondeat superior, employers are responsible for the actions of their employees performed within the scope of employment. Therefore, if highway hypnosis occurs because a commercial driver was overworked or forced to operate under unsafe conditions, plaintiffs may pursue claims against both the driver and the employer.  

Lawsuits in the transportation industry often reference violations of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations, which include limits on driving time, mandatory rest breaks, and logbook requirements. Failure to comply with these regulations can lead to enhanced damages and even punitive liability. 

As autonomous vehicles become more popular, lawmakers and personal injury professionals have started to consider what complexities these vehicles will bring. Semi-autonomous systems like Tesla’s Autopilot o GM’s Super Cruise can significantly reduce the driver’s engagement. Unfortunately, this increases the likelihood of highway hypnosis as drivers become passive overseers. 

This raises several questions that we need to consider.  

  • If a driver zones out while using autopilot and crashes, who’s liable?  
  • Did the system encourage inattentiveness?  
  • Were there adequate warnings or overrides?  

“I think highway hypnosis will become a bigger issue as the number of autonomous vehicles on the road increases. Autonomous driving systems can lull drivers into a false sense of security, encouraging passivity and increasing zoning out,” said Chapa. “If a driver zones out using autopilot, they can still be held responsible for a wreck if the autonomous driving system required them to stay engaged.”  

Future litigation may involve product liability claims against manufacturers if vehicle design promotes highway hypnosis-like states without adequate safeguards. At the same time, human operators will still bear responsibility for remaining alert while in the vehicle. Undoubtedly, evolving technology and human limitations will require new laws to be put in place to hold drivers and manufacturers accountable in the event of a crash.  

“The manufacturer could share the blame, but the driver still has a duty to operate the vehicle in a safe manner. Even if there are warnings and overrides, drivers need to be prepared to process the information the vehicle is giving and react in time to prevent a wreck,” Chapa added. 

Neurological and Practical Aspects 

What Happens to the Brain During Highway Hypnosis? 

Neurologically, highway hypnosis involves a shift in brainwave activity. While the motor cortex of your brain continues controlling the physical act of driving, the prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for decision-making and conscious focus, is less active. This can resemble a meditative or semi-trance state (hence the hypnosis part of the name), which impairs a driver’s ability to react to sudden or complex stimuli. 

Functional MRI studies suggest that during monotonous driving tasks, there’s decreased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, which is responsible for error detection, increasing the risk of unnoticed driving mistakes.  

In layman’s terms, when the road looks the same and nothing seems to change, your brain starts to zone out, changing brain activity from active concentration to relaxed alertness or daydreaming. The brain starts to prioritize routine motor functions over active observation, which can lead to delayed reaction times.  

Is it Dangerous?  

Highway hypnosis, as mentioned previously, is a form of distracted driving that can be just as dangerous as falling asleep behind the wheel.  

“It’s extremely dangerous,” said Chapa. “When a driver is zoned out, their reaction time slows, and they may not notice hazards, traffic changes, or sudden stops. This increases the risk of drifting out of lanes, missing signs and signals, or causing wrecks due to inattention.”  

Even if the driver can keep the car in the appropriate lane, the lack of responsiveness can lead to a car crash. In fact, studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimate that up to 100,000 police-reported crashes each year involve drowsy driving, including incidents of highway hypnosis.  

How to Treat and Prevent Highway Hypnosis  

Preventing highway hypnosis requires intentional intervention. It’s important to take regular breaks, ideally every two hours or after driving 100 miles, to stretch and refresh your body and mind. Ideally, you should avoid driving late at night or after meals, if you can, to reduce the likeliness of experiencing highway hypnosis. You are naturally more tired during these times.  

Entertaining yourself by listening to podcasts, audiobooks, or your favorite playlist provides mental stimulation that can prevent the onset of highway hypnosis. Something as simple as wearing sunglasses or frequently shifting your gaze can help prevent highway hypnosis, too, by giving you a new and unique perspective. Aside from that, staying hydrated and eating light meals is always recommended because heavy meals can increase feelings of tiredness.  

Additionally, if you’re feeling tired, stay away from cruise control! Manually controlling your speed forces you to be actively involved in driving, which can help keep you from daydreaming or falling asleep. Although there is no clinical “treatment” for highway hypnosis, intentionally making yourself more aware by making these habit adjustments can significantly reduce its occurrence.  

Ultimately, highway hypnosis may seem like no big deal. If you get where you’re going safely, it’s easy to laugh it off. However, from a legal standpoint, it represents a real and present danger. Whether in civil liability, criminal negligence, or emerging technologies, the law continues to evolve in its treatment of mental inattention behind the wheel.   

At Daniel Stark, we intend to continue monitoring the evolution of the law while remaining active contributors to this conversation to keep our clients safe. Drivers, employers, and manufacturers all share a duty to prevent such altered states, and courts are increasingly holding them accountable when they fail to do so. If you or a loved one has been injured in a crash caused by a distracted driver, contact a qualified personal injury lawyer. They can help you receive full value for your injury.