So, baby, don't make a move because I'm coming for you, I'm coming for you, better make way because I'm coming through, you might let me do a page through, Subaru, Subaru, yeah, yeah, yeah, because I'm Gary, taking a look at the transmission, putting in the line, we've got a screen television. Pretty cold with Sarah and Tennille, that's Fountains of Wayne, 92 Subaru. Girl, I have never heard of that group or that song, but it has a good beat. 92 Subaru, now, what were you driving at 92?
My bicycle. What are you talking about, my scooter? Okay, okay, should have asked you that question, but April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and I was like, back in 92, I didn't have as many distractions as there are now. No, you're right.
The only distraction that we might have had was the radio and maybe a technique. Or if you had too many friends in your vehicle. No, no, that was a distraction. Yeah, there's a lot happening in vehicles now, for sure.
Yes, yes, so research shows us, or tells us, that approximately 660,000 American drivers are using electronic devices and driving at any given moment. So write this down, that's how many American drivers are driving and using a device. Well, let's think about, when you get your car and you drive down the highway, if you look around, people are looking at their phones, and I cannot say, especially on the interstate, if you are driving 75 miles an hour, I'm guilty. I try not to, but I'm guilty.
We all do it. I've done it, but nine Americans die each day in a crash caused by distracted driving. Oh, that's one too many. I mean, like, one is too many.
Nine is a whole lot of people every day. Yeah, and that's preventable stuff. You know, just pay attention. Yeah, and driving distracted is similar to something else.
Yes, driving your own for under the influence. Yeah. So, I mean, we wouldn't want to do that. So, if you take your eyes off the road for five seconds while you're driving, 55.
I know you said we go more than that. Yeah, on some roads, yeah. But if you're just going 55 miles an hour, and you take your eyes off the road for five seconds, you want to driven the link with a book off here. Oh, my God.
Without even, yeah. And, you know, it's not just the devices. Sometimes we've just got so much on our minds, and you pull up, and you're like, I don't even want to get here. How did I get here?
Yeah. That used to happen a lot. You know, so that's distracted as well when we get caught up and what's going on in our heads, you know. So, let's just go over just a few things about distracted driving, because we don't need to call to the GPS and the GPS.
Do that, and then you can focus on your driving. Well, in my car, if I do the GPS on my navigation, it won't even do it if I'm driving. So, you have to pull up. You have to do it.
Okay. So, yeah, we take care of all that. You're right. And think about, like, I have a, you know, there's three drivers in my home, and if somebody gets in and has driven my car, which happens a lot, like, I need to reset all that, because I'm really short, and they're tall.
Yeah, just fix it all before I even turn the car on. What happens is you don't realize that your seat is not at the same position, and you're, like, driving, and it's like, oh, I need to scoop the seat. We look down and push some buttons. Yeah.
Yeah. No, that's a great one to start with. Also, limit the use of your phone. Okay.
We know that you're going to have your phone in there. You know, but either put it out of sight or turn your notifications off so you're not tempted to look at it when you hear that noise. I know a lot of people that put it on Do Not Disturb while they're driving. Yeah.
Using those voice command things are better, like, you know, whoever make a call to, whatever. Yeah. Yeah, it's better. You know, as long as you don't have to look at something or reach for something, those types of things.
Phone usage is a big issue. The National Safety Council has let us know that, this is huge, 1.6 million crashes per year arc on just phone usage. And, you know, they can go back and look at that. I mean, they can see what happened at the time of the crash, whether you were talking on the phone, whether there were text messages being sent back and forth.
So, that's easy for them to see, and that's a whole lot of crashes. Yes. It's a whole lot. Make sure that you're not sleepy.
Oh, yeah. Because, you know, sleepy driving is distracted driving, and I've been guilty of driving during a time when I should have not been driving. I'm just exhausted. Yes.
So, you need to get enough sleep before you drive. If you're taking medication, make sure it's something that does not make you sleepy. You know, if you are one of these people that need to stop, stop. Yeah.
I'm trying to push through what's real so you can get there. Right. Or if you're traveling with somebody, take turns so you can rest. Because it's a lot.
If you're on a long trip, it takes a lot out of you. Yes. Because you've got to navigate your car, but you've also got to watch what's going on behind you, you know, in front of you, besides, you know, you've got to be alert. Yeah.
So, I think that's a great one, making sure you're well-rested, for sure. Yes. Limit your number of passengers. I kind of alluded to that earlier.
Well, we're going back to 1992, and that was not a practice that we had. You know, young people, well, now I think they have a long nap. They didn't back then. Yeah.
Drivers who are not as experienced, they don't need to pile all their friends in one car and go to their favorite after-school snack place or whatever. It's just not, it's not a good idea, and it's a recipe for distracted driving. And they, you know, one of them will see something on their phone, and they'll say, hey, look, and they're trying to show the driver what they see. You know, some of it is just lack of maturity.
I mean, and we've all been there. Like I said, 1992, this dude with his Subaru, you know, he was ready to go pick his girl up, and I'm sure that, you know, he's been playing the music and distracted. Of course. Well, even I'm thinking, like, as an adult, when I've had a bunch of kids in the car, or even adults, and it's bad weather, I've had to be like, okay, I'm going to be fine for a minute.
Like, I keep, even with some grown folks in the car, I need to, I got to focus. If there's a lot of traffic, if the weather's bad. Right. Right.
So, how many times have you been in the car, and you pulled up beside someone, and they are giving themselves a whole makeover? They are putting a lipstick, they're putting their hair, eyeliner on. Now, I can park on this one, because I can't apply makeup in a moving car. I just can't do it.
But, get ready before you leave home. Yeah. Or, I have even had to take my things with me and get ready once I get to play. True.
You're running late or whatever. Exactly. But, combing your hair, doing all that, you have to take at least one hand off the wheel, sometimes two, to put things on. Then, you have to keep looking in the mirror to make sure you're doing it right, and you're not watching.
You got all your needs. Yeah, you're not watching in front of yourself. So, get ready before you leave the house. Get your kids ready.
They'll try to be on the way to school, and you're turning around, and trying to wipe their faces, because they've got breakfast. Oh, my God. We've all been in all these situations. Yes, we have.
But, yeah. Another one, and this one I break from time to time, is to not eat while you're driving. Oh, I break that a lot. We're extension people.
We have to go from A to B. And sometimes I don't have time to eat before I go. Or, if we're on a road trip, like, we don't like to stop a lot, so we'll just grab and go. Right.
But, you know, even drive-friendly food can be dangerous, you know. Okay, so what do you get? You normally think, if I just get a sandwich, I can hold my sandwich with one hand and drive with another. Exactly.
You know, hamburger, whatever, that kind of stuff. But then you get, like, oh, I can pass the sandwich with the other hand. And you're fried. Oh, where am I going?
Okay, now I need another hand. Just eat. Right, right. So, just because you can pick it up in the drive-thru doesn't mean we need to drive with it, for sure.
Drivers who eat or drink while they're driving are 3.6 times more likely to be in a crash. So, to think about your young drivers, too. They're just not ready for that. And then it's distracted driving.
Take your eyes, like you said, take your eyes off the road for five seconds and you've driven a football field. What have you missed? What did you drive through? Right, right.
And this is what I'm guilty of, multitasking while I'm driving. I am booking doctor's appointments or checking open dates on your calendar. Somebody calls and says, hey, what are you doing? You know, May the 8th or whatever.
And I'm like, I don't know. I've got my phone. Let me check. And you're trying to click on May the 8th.
We all have done that too. You know, you're distracted. Or I, a lot of times, take notes on my phone while I'm driving. You know, I think of something and I will verbalize for it to go on my list.
And then I'm like, oh, this one's on my list. Then I've got to get the phone and look at it. So, take care of things before you get on the road or wait until you get where you're going. I think that we are so programmed to, like, not have much downtime.
That's if I'm just driving my car. I'm wasting time. I've got to drive 30 minutes to get somewhere. That's 30 minutes that I need to be working on things.
But we need to reframe that as you are doing something. You are driving a vehicle. You know, so we need to think about it like that. We do.
Gosh, this is probably one for me that I'll be like, hey, what was that? Because we haul a lot of stuff in our car. And we've got those rolling carts that move. And then my kids, you know, like their backpacks for sports or whatever.
Or in the grocery store, you know, you turn and things roll over. Like, you want to make sure that stuff is secure or not. Because when that happens, it's a distraction. You know?
Or have you ever slung your brakes on and, like, 5,000 things hit the floor? You know? And it's non-intentional. But, like, hey, I'm taking this box of books to be dropped off here.
And I'm taking these pamphlets here. And then somebody pulls out in front of you, slam on the brakes. And everything goes everywhere. Right.
Or you've been to the grocery and an apple rolls up beside you because all the groceries have fallen over. But those are distractions. They are. And we need to make sure that everything's in its place before we head out.
Yeah. One thing I'm really bad about is I leave my purse unsealed up a lot of times while I'm driving. So if I stop, like, I see a red light or it's yellow. And I'm like, everybody stop with this one.
And I hit my brakes rather hard. My purse goes flying. And everything goes out of my purse. So what am I trying to do?
Lean down and pick items off the passenger side below it. Yeah, that's not taking it. No, that's distracting. But I mean, my wallet's on the floor.
It's going to be there when you park. So just slow your roll. It will be there when you are. No, it's not leaving your vehicle.
But I know what you mean. We want to pick it up. So I think one of the last steps that we need to just remind people, and I feel like we've said this multiple times, is to always keep your eyes on the road. Okay?
If you're driving, don't be the one looking out the window trying to take in the scenes and the sights and all that. You know, my husband, if you're listening to this, Josh, you already know what I'm going to say. And I love you more than life. But he is all, because we live in the country, and he's always standing in the fields for, like, wildlife.
And I'll be driving. Let's be some deer in the fields. Yes, it's okay to scan, but you need to get your eyes back on the road quick, because part of driving is being aware of what's going on, like you said, around you, behind you. But we don't just need to lock in.
They're building things so fast. And you're where I live in. So when I live, I'm like, oh, what's that? I'm trying to read the construction sign and see if it says what it is.
That's distracted driving. You don't know what the person in front of you is doing, right? Well, they're trying to see what they're doing, too, because it wasn't a year a couple days ago. And so we all could just call the road.
Or if there's an accident, everybody starts rubbernecking, and then another accident occurs. So we just encourage you to keep your eyes on the road and not on all these other summer months are coming. People hit the road in droves when the weather gets nice, when the summer break gets here. So be aware.
You know, be aware of what's happening in your car, but also around your car. Because remember, there'll be people on summer vacations. There'll be people that are not from the area. They'll be driving slowly, looking for their destinations.
And if you're flying through and you're eating and putting on your makeup, you might miss them and hit them. It can happen. Yes, so thank you all for joining in on today's episode. In the words of Bob Marley, live the life you love.
And love the life you live. Drive safely, everyone.