Harry's Gang: Don't take driving for granted

I’ve hired quite a few pizza delivery drivers over the years, mostly high school boys, but sometimes girls and adults. But, mostly, my delivery drivers are young. The first question I ask during the interview is: “Have you ever been in an accident?”

Most kids are anticipating my preferred answer and respond, proudly: “No, I’ve never been in a car accident.”

I tell them to come back after they have been.

That’s because no invincible teenager ever really, truly appreciates the power and danger of 2000 pounds of steel and gasoline pulsating under their right foot, until they lose control of their car and realize their vehicle is in control of them — not the other way around. The freedom of driving, of course, comes with great responsibility. But it’s the rare teenager who appreciates that power without having experienced the sheer terror of losing control of their car and getting into an accident. The delivery drivers I hire are the ones who, usually sheepishly, admit, “Yes, I have damaged my parents’ car, and it was all my fault.” They’re the ones who drive more carefully, having realized how scary a car can be.

The same is true for adults, who can easily forget how much damage a car can wreak with very little effort.

I’ve delivered quite a few pizzas, myself, over the years. (Nothing seems more surreal than having your lawyer pull up late on a Friday night with a Titanic pizza and some chicken wings.) But every once in a while, I’m reminded of the awesome power of the vehicle.

Then, add in a little alcohol. The legal limit for driving with alcohol in your system is 0.08 BAC. That’s quite a bit, actually. An average-sized male will get to 0.08 after having five drinks or so. But even one drink can raise your blood alcohol level by 0.002 percent, a miniscule number but enough to cause you to relax, loosen some tension, and get a little happy. Nothing wrong with that, of course. But those emotions are not the recipe for an astute driver. You should be vigilant, aware, and able to concentrate when you are driving a car. Any amount of alcohol affects your driving.

Of course, I’m not suggesting you should never drive after consuming alcohol. I am being realistic: people drink alcohol and drive all the time. I am also not suggesting that alcohol is the only distraction while driving. Cell phones, conversations, even a good song on the radio can interfere with your awareness of the road. Unfocused, just a simple run to the grocery store, or running the babysitter home after a night out can be tragic.

Imagine that you need something from the grocery store at about 8 p.m. on a Thursday, as I did last week. It’s getting darker around that time now, and I can take city streets all the way to Super One without getting on a main thoroughfare until I hit Big Lake Road. There are about five stop signs along my route; at each one, I’m usually the only car at the intersection. Suddenly, two kids on bikes, coming down the hill, race across the intersection without stopping or even slowing down. I barely noticed them, and started pulling forward. Fortunately, I stopped as they passed me by and, truthfully, I probably would not have hit them even if I kept going. Probably. But it sure was foolish of those kids to gamble, and if I had “slowed and gone,” as often happens at lonely stop signs, it could have been fatal.

So, I urge drivers this holiday weekend to stay alert. There’s no need to get into an accident to remind us of the sheer power our cars are capable of. Let me remind you, in this column, and save you the trouble.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News community newspaper and an attorney in Esko who will host the talk show Harry’s Gang on CAT-7 again soon. His opinions are his own. Contact him at [email protected].