I recently had an awareness moment while my son and I were driving in my Grand Prix. I saw a cat running toward the street from my right as I was making a right hand turn. I swerved a bit to the left and sideswiped a left turning vehicle. I didn’t see her. Isn’t that what THEY all say?

I consider myself a good driver, a defensive driver, one that is always looking ahead anticipating my next move like a polished chess player. Well, as they say, I broke the golden rule, don’t drive when your brain is full! I was concentrating on the cat to my right, on my son talking, about painting our new house and I was completely distracted from the task at hand! As the driver of the other vehicle and I exchanged information, I pondered, how I didn’t see a good sized American car and how glad I did not hit a motorcyclist. OMG…

In December’s AMA magazine, there was startling research from Allstate regarding the distracted driver. When I read this article, I was both shocked and dismayed. Allstate observed 6,700 cases of distracted driving on 62 intersections across CA for one hour on October 11. The top distractions that they noted were eating or drinking, using a cellphone, texting or reading their cellphone and personal grooming. Wow, I was doing none of that and still managed to hit someone, ah the mind is an amazing tool! Seriously, heads up folks, there are many drivers on the roadways that are doing anything other than driving their 2,000 pound battering ram.

Since my “accident”, I have been spot on, using as much of my brain as available 😉 I rarely chat on the phone, even hands free, I never text while moving, I watch for pets, but keep scanning the road ahead for vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians and anything else, like that table that just flew out of the back of the pickup into the road causing half a million splinters. It’s a freakin’ jungle out there!