Thoughts and experiences of lying in the back seat of a car when it is moving

I generally lie in the back seat when being driven anywhere. I could sit up for not-long journeys but it uses up some of my energy which I want to save for whatever reason I’m going out.

Not wearing a seat belt is against the law here but my attitude up till now is “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it”. Occasionally I will sit up and put on a seat belt if a police car is around.

So just curious what are people’s thoughts on and experiences of this.

 

I've had to lie down in the back of a car seat for journeys and asked my GP to provide a seatbelt exemption certificate (I'm in the UK - here is the UK government info page about them). Even so, while I'm lying down I put seatbelts across my body as best I'm able because if the car crashes, I want to protect myself and the people in the front of the car. [Edit: See the thread below about how this is maybe not very safe and could cause injuries in a collision, because seatbelts are not meant to be worn in this manner!]

Previously when I've asked for the certificate, I've had to pay for it (£35? £50?) and it has annoyingly been written out for only 3 months even though my ME/CFS has been bad enough to need one for many years and is clearly unlike to change, barring an effective treatment. But lately, I've argued to have one indefinitely, and have been issue with such a one for free.

Most GPs in my practice are unfamiliar with the certificates and will offer to write a letter but don't let them! It's not legal. The surgery will have to order pads of certificates.

I think it's well worth getting one of these, not least to avoid getting the driver into trouble with either the police or their insurance company in case of an accident.

 

Are you able to describe how you do that please?

 

It's a while since I've done it but IIRC, I use both seatbelts on the back seat and insert my upper body through one and my legs through the other.

I'm not sure if that's a very helpful description but I don't think I can do better!

 

I've watched videos on YouTube where passengers were not wearing a seat belt at the time of accident and it is horrendous what happens to a body. The impact can smash you through the windscreens flying out onto the road like a ragdoll.

Even at my sickest I wore a seat belt. I had major problems with sitting. I would much rather suffer the extremes of ME than suffer the injuries or death from not wearing a seat belt.

Sorry, just a reminder about this.

 

https://incarsafetycentre.co.uk/products/ez-on-harness

You can buy this for £200 lying-down harness.

 

I don't have any technical knowledge, but I wouldn't do that. Children have to use booster seats because seatbelts can cause horrible abdominal injuries if they don't pass properly across the pelvis like they do in an adult. That robust bone structure is important to stop them strangling internal organs.

I don't think I'd travel like that unless my life was already at risk. I've only been in minor accidents that were barely enough to damage the vehicles, but the force involved was still pretty sobering.

 

OK, I experimented. I could only seem to manage one or other at a time. The one across my neck was quite tight and close to my neck. The one around my lower body was much more comfortable but still did give security so think I will use that going forward.
(Written before other responses came in).

 

I'll add a note about safety to my original post. I agree it's not ideal.

 

I lay in the back as best I could when travel issues were at their worst but always wore a seatbelt.
I think I sat in one seat with the belt across me, raised my feet with knees bent onto the other seat and turned my back so as to lean against the door behind me with a neck pillow. My memory is that with the belt pulled out a fair way but still locked, I could sort of lie down. I travelled to my daughter's 90 miles away like that but I couldn't do the 270 holiday trip.

 

Unfortunately I’m too long to lie flat in the back of most cars so not sure this would work for me. Anyone have any experiences or thoughts?

 

I vaguely recall hearing people say before they sat in the passenger seat in the front seat and tilted the seat back a lot. I think I experimented with it once but the seat didn’t go very far back.

 

When I was still able to sit somewhat during car journeys I used to sit in the front passenger seat and bring a squashy pouffe from my house and put it in the footwell so I could have my feet raised, because tilting the seat back meant my legs were still too low relative to the rest of me to help with my OI. This is probably another position it wouldn't be great to get caught in in a car crash but short of travelling in an ambulance (which you can hire, but they're very expensive and if they crashed, you're not strapped in - or at least, I wasn't, there didn't seem to be the means) I don't know how else a PwME with bad OI can travel.

 

It depends on the car. The front passenger seat in my old van reclined almost fully if you hutched it forward as far as possible, which I discovered when I got stuck on a motorway for hours. I haven't tried it in the new one yet.

That harness would be great in a long wheelbase WAV, as you could attach it to the rear wheelchair restraints. Don't suppose you know anyone who's got one? [ETA – I mean a van, not the harness!] Someone could lie on mattress in mine if the wheelchair weren't in it.

 

Most of the sitting I do is with my feet up. So at our main table, the space opposite me needs to be free so I put my feet on it. I have a (hard) pouffe where my PC is and another in the sitting room which I use when guests are here and lying down wouldn’t work. On the rare occasion I’m out socially, my feet will generally be on another chair or a low bar stool or sometimes on the long couch-like thing in a bar with a napkin under my feet. I’m sure it looks eccentric but needs must. I recall one person recommending a lightweight stool she brings with her for this purpose.

 

I always lie with passenger seat pushed fully back, and fully reclined, then i have several cushions in the foot well to put my feet & lower legs up on. Multiple cushions of different shapes & sizes are the key to getting comfy. When we stop (i have to stop for 5-10 mins every 15mins of travelling) I put my feetlegs up on the dashboard.

I cant imagine lying on the back seat, ugh the motion alone would make me vomit all the way.
and not being secured in the seat, so having to continually do little micro movements in order to keep myself on the seat... goodness no I would find that to be far more exertion than the not-quite-fully-flat issue in the reclined front seat.

But i do read of people travelling in the back so, i dunno

PLS note ; Do not travel with feet up on dashboard its really dangerous, i just do it when we stop

 

Yes motion ‘sickness’ is a real showstopper in even contemplating these options for me. It’s not ‘sickness’ it means, but more like vertigo and is like a horrendous headache that exhausts and disorients me and takes it out of me for a very long time - I wouldn’t be able to function at whatever I was travelling to due to this as it affects me physically ie this also seems to make my body weak

I find front seat important therefore due to motion sickness

I agree on using pillows to support head or any back or neck/shoulder issues but also just a good car seat vs a less good one can only be bridged so much (so I’d rather be in a car that fits me well if there are options). The pillows would on a longer journey help support muscles and reduce exertion/exhaustion if holding one’s head in place / when in need to rest a side of my face on something or have arms held.

above that then reducing the height off the ground of the seat and pushing it back so that I can stretch my legs out in front of me rather than bend them helps and if I’ve a bag in the footwell having that ad an option helps

I’ll recline only as I need because of the motion sickness impact of not looking forward / being in line with the movement of the car

I couldn’t do lying down on Uk roads they are too stop start snd turns etc

back of car therefore is torture and long journeys just seem increasingly impossible

this is another one I find hard to get understood or believed at all on

I’ll say ‘I don’t know how I’ll make that journey sn hour away to be able to get that medical help’ and people just hear the wrong thing as if I’m not understanding how important the medical help is rather than them not understanding how bad and detrimental the impact of the journey must be given I understand that more than most. Human nature is really unpleasant and continues to not just disappoint but terrify me and the chances of me surviving because you get blocked at every turn just for the sake of it by these human instincts of competitiveness and rushing to judge before understanding etc

I've been offered/suggested that you can get minibus 'lifts' (probably have to pay for them too) to the local hospital, which is 30-50min journey away across busy traffic as the helpful offer for sick people. But the message doesn't seem to get out that being sat upright in an supportive minibus seat bobbing around trying to keep yourself straight then I couldn't make that journey at all, vs it still being almost too hard but just about with a 'maybe I wont fully recover and it will be a long time of no function after' even if someone took me in a good car, happy to stop and able to lie down and rest for a good amount of time at the end of journey before doing anything else.

The sheer bigotry of 'just encourage the disabled person to be more independent and stop putting upon others to help them', 'so pop yourself on a minibus and get over it' is breathtaking. And how on earth do you get the person who is that and convinced they aren't a bigot as they act that way to realise it when calling them what they are just makes them dig in and attack you.

it is still questionable whether it is worth it (maybe not if I need to function but if someone is just drawing blood .. the interesting question is 'what is our blood like when we've been thru all this vs normal')

It astounds me how people think I could just be put on a minibus, problem solved - they won't get it. And it is beyond heartbreaking, it's desperate wondering how I'll survive long term with this attitude I've been up against for everything of people being happy to just keep sacrificing me until I'm done and the iller you are the more you can't fight back and the vitriol can be there. Including when just in PEM.

 

OK, I tried with both my parents’ cars, tilting the front passenger seat back and using cushions. I think I will do this for both cars in future. I got the impression my orthostatic intolerance wasn’t being triggered as much in both. There was actually a very large difference in how much tilt there was. My dad’s car which was powered in terms of tilting went near horizontal (13-year-old BMW) while my mum’s (6-year-old Ford) had just a twisty thing that didn’t tilt very far back at all unfortunately.

 

I forgot to add that I wore a neck brace for several years which made a big difference for me in preventing dizziness and nausea, and earphones and/ or a mask on occasion.
I don't think our cars' front seats recline very far, both Volvos, mine now 22 years old, Mr B's 12 years.

It's a different issue but I am finding it very hard to let go of my car even though I don't really drive it now. It represents independence but my recent trial wasn't a success. I still can't let it go I don't think. I still believe it will be useful driving, perhaps to the kerb outside a friend's.
It's not a total waste : our son drives it when visiting.
It will anyway come to a natural end in 2027 when our disability exemption to ULEZ runs out.

 

Used the tilt and cushions for the first time with my dad’s car and it went well. Didn’t go all the way back as a little worried about how the seat belt might work in an accident but did go most of the way. Thanks for tip.