Speaker 1: It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm telling easy bond video.
Speaker 2: Thang you out, coming up on the ten o'clock news,
Speaker 2: coming up after the ten o'clock news, I should say.
Speaker 2: And we're coming up upon the tenth hour of this
Speaker 2: day of actually it's the twenty I mean, think about
Speaker 2: it's the twenty third hour of the day, but it's
Speaker 2: ten o'clock. A simple as that, we keep it simple,
Speaker 2: keep it simple. It's ten aweight. My name is Dan Ray.
Speaker 2: So we just talked last hour about cell phones and
Speaker 2: had some really great vocals. We're going to do the
Speaker 2: same this hour, but a different topic, and I want
Speaker 2: to talk about distracted driving. I will admit I can
Speaker 2: be a distracted driver. I try not to be, but
Speaker 2: there's a lot of ways you can be a distracted driver,
Speaker 2: and frankly I should be. It's sort of related because
Speaker 2: I should put the cell phone away, because if the
Speaker 2: cell phone rings, my impulse is to use it. And
Speaker 2: for a long time I thought to myself, well, talking
Speaker 2: in the cell phone is the same as talking to
Speaker 2: someone in the passenger seat. And while that might be true,
Speaker 2: it's a lot easier to talk to someone in the
Speaker 2: passenger seat by just saying, what do you think about
Speaker 2: the Red Sox game last night? Or what do you
Speaker 2: think about the Bruins the Bruins beat the Canadians. How
Speaker 2: do you think Drake May is going to do this weekend?
Speaker 2: As opposed to going through your phone list and either
Speaker 2: punching in someone's number that you've memorized or scrolling and
Speaker 2: finding their name and punching their number into their name.
Speaker 2: We all probably do it. We all probably do it.
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of bad drivers out there. Okay,
Speaker 2: people who are speeding, you've seen them. Okay, people who tailgate,
Speaker 2: We've talked about that. But I want to talk about
Speaker 2: distracted driving. And I got to be honest with you.
Speaker 2: I wish I could say I have never been distracted
Speaker 2: while I was driving, but I think all of us
Speaker 2: have been. Probably cell phone usage is the worst example
Speaker 2: of distracted driving. Now, again, the commonality between these two hours,
Speaker 2: obviously is cell phone usage. Cell phone usage by kids
Speaker 2: in school when they should be being educated, when they
Speaker 2: should be learning, and cell phone usage by us adults
Speaker 2: while we're driving. So the first thing that I'd like
Speaker 2: to do is invite you to call and admit tell
Speaker 2: me that you've used your cell phone. I think most
Speaker 2: people have. Is there a way that you have figured
Speaker 2: out how to bring the cell phone with you but
Speaker 2: not use it while you're driving? I mean, driving long
Speaker 2: distances can be bored. But I think it's something that
Speaker 2: we need to talk about, because if we're going to
Speaker 2: criticize kids for bringing cell phones to school and being
Speaker 2: distracted in class, we need to as adults. I think
Speaker 2: fest up. And I'll I've fested up already, and I
Speaker 2: hope you'll fest up as well. But in addition, I'd
Speaker 2: love to find out from you what are some of
Speaker 2: the other really weird stuff you've seen that have been
Speaker 2: because it's only it's not just cell phones. I mean,
Speaker 2: these numbers are are important. Consider this. About three thousand
Speaker 2: people die in auto accidents due to distracted driving every year.
Speaker 2: Thirty one and forty two people died because of distracted
Speaker 2: driving in twenty twenty. There were twenty eight hundred and
Speaker 2: eighty fatal accidents in twenty twenty involving a distracted driver.
Speaker 2: Eight percent of fatal car accidents are due to distracted driving.
Speaker 2: Nine nine people die every day from distracted driving. I mean,
Speaker 2: these are numbers, These are real numbers, and there were
Speaker 2: names people behind. In addition to other drivers, five hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty seven pedestrians and cyclists were killed in distracted
Speaker 2: driving automobile accidents in twenty twenty, and three hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty four thousand, six hundred and fifty two were injured
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty. These are statistics. There may be later statistics,
Speaker 2: but these are the statistics that I have to use now.
Speaker 2: Most distracted driving happens between six and eleven at night.
Speaker 2: The least distracted driving occurs between six and nine in
Speaker 2: the morning. It's a cell phone use was involved in
Speaker 2: twelve percent of car accidents. That's a big number. That's
Speaker 2: a big number. It does say that young people. In
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, people between the ages of twenty five and
Speaker 2: thirty four were involved in the most distracted driving fatal accidents.
Speaker 2: It's tough to kind of live with yourself after that
Speaker 2: when you really do think about it. There's other things
Speaker 2: that people do. What's the dumbest thing that you've ever
Speaker 2: done while you were driving, or what's the dumbest thing
Speaker 2: you saw someone else do. There are lots of ways
Speaker 2: in which you can be distracted. Obviously, there's enough problems
Speaker 2: out there to deal with. Then then it's more than
Speaker 2: cell phones. I mean, if it was just cell phones,
Speaker 2: you could focus on cell phones. But there are people
Speaker 2: who put their makeup on. There are people who are
Speaker 2: eating as they're driving. I've done that. I've done that.
Speaker 2: There are people who have in the morning have a
Speaker 2: cup of coffee. They drive through McDonald's and they go
Speaker 2: ahead and they have their coffee in their hand, and
Speaker 2: if they spill their coffee, yikes, that's going to distract
Speaker 2: you a little bit.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: There are apparently three types of distracted driving. Visual distractions.
Speaker 2: It cause you to take your eyes away from the road.
Speaker 2: These can a GPS. Well, GPS is now part of it,
Speaker 2: so I don't know that I would put a GPS
Speaker 2: in that category, but I guess so looking at a billboard,
Speaker 2: I guess we all look at billboards, but I think
Speaker 2: what kind of used to that. There are a lot
Speaker 2: of people who rubber neck and accident on the other
Speaker 2: side of the road, and of course just checking out
Speaker 2: scenery and looking at other cars surrounding you instead of
Speaker 2: looking at what's in front of you. That's visual distractions.
Speaker 2: There are manual distractions, and these are eating. As I mentioned,
Speaker 2: while driving using your cell phone, even something as simple
Speaker 2: as changing the radio station or reaching for something in
Speaker 2: the car, all examples of manual distractions and then cognitive
Speaker 2: distractions that take your mind off driving or worrying. They
Speaker 2: all fall into this category. Now, look, I don't think
Speaker 2: you'd be in the road without maybe daydreaming a little bit.
Speaker 2: So we will focus on behavior that you've seen and
Speaker 2: a little bit up phone lines a simple as that
Speaker 2: six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six one seven,
Speaker 2: nine three one ten thirty. Now again, cell phones, I
Speaker 2: think are the commonality to these two hours, And we've
Speaker 2: just been pretty critical of students, elementary school kids, junior
Speaker 2: high school kids, and high school kids who can't separate
Speaker 2: themselves from their cell phone while they're at school. Uh,
Speaker 2: inability to do that hurts them, hurts themselves because they'll
Speaker 2: miss a lesson, whether it's in a a in a
Speaker 2: what I would call a building ball block, a subject
Speaker 2: like math. If you don't, you know, you've got to
Speaker 2: learn to add in order to figure out how to subtract.
Speaker 2: You have to learn to multiply in order how to
Speaker 2: figure out how to divide, and you have to learn
Speaker 2: all of that to do things like algebra and geometry
Speaker 2: and all the higher applications. But with cell phones in
Speaker 2: your car, you know, you can get killed or you
Speaker 2: can kill yourself. And I'm an offender. I'm not perfect
Speaker 2: in any stretch. I'm an offender. Okay, I'm doing this
Speaker 2: tonight and sort of criticizing myself because I'm hoping that
Speaker 2: by criticizing myself on the radio publicly, I will force
Speaker 2: myself to do less of it, or maybe do none
Speaker 2: of it. I'd like to say to you, I'll never
Speaker 2: use a cell phone again while driving. I don't know
Speaker 2: how he will do that, but maybe I just have
Speaker 2: to shut it off, leave it in the seat, allow
Speaker 2: it to charge, or something like that. I'm just I'm serious.
Speaker 2: I don't want to be on the phone. And if
Speaker 2: something bad happened after having done an hour in the
Speaker 2: radio like this, so that's my first topic. Hoppy to
Speaker 2: this hour. If this topic doesn't work, and I think
Speaker 2: it will, I have a third topic in my back pocket.
Speaker 2: And uh we also have, of course, the twentieth hour
Speaker 2: coming up, so stay with us. That is always, I
Speaker 2: think one of the most enjoyable hours of the week,
Speaker 2: because one is the last hour of the week But
Speaker 2: number two, it gets you. We try to do it
Speaker 2: in such a way that gets you going towards the
Speaker 2: weekend with a little bit of fun. So you have
Speaker 2: the topics at hand, you have a telephone at hand,
Speaker 2: feel free and if you can drive, if you could
Speaker 2: drive and talk to me in the radio. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to discourage you from doing that, but please be careful.
Speaker 2: Six one seven thirty six one seven, nine, three ten
Speaker 2: thirty Distract the driving. What have you seen other people do?
Speaker 2: Putting on their makeup, eating, read someone's reading newspapers. You know,
Speaker 2: these driverless cars are very active in San Francisco. I'm
Speaker 2: telling you right now, they're going to be here in
Speaker 2: Boston before you know it. We'll be back on Night's
Speaker 2: side right after this. Feel free to join us. It's
Speaker 2: a Friday night in Boston.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Mine from the Window World
Speaker 1: Night Side Studios on w b Z, the news radio.
Speaker 2: Well, here we go, we got we've got good response,
Speaker 2: got full lines. Let's go right to it. Harold is
Speaker 2: in Hudson, Massachusetts. Harold, let's talk about distracted driving. What's
Speaker 2: the weirdest thing you've ever seen out there in the road.
Speaker 4: Hey, hi, Harold, Hey you there.
Speaker 2: I am absolutely this is You're Harold and Hanson and
Speaker 2: I'm Dan at WBZ. You go right, what's your favorite?
Speaker 2: What is it? What's your favorite? But what sort of
Speaker 2: distracted driving have you seen or engaged in?
Speaker 5: I got a sorry story.
Speaker 2: Ago. Jeez, watch that one, Harold.
Speaker 3: I don't forget that.
Speaker 5: I just I'm so passionate.
Speaker 3: I got carried away.
Speaker 2: Sorry, no, I understand that past. Remember there are little
Speaker 2: kids listening. Okay, so that's all I gotta do.
Speaker 3: Oh, go to bed.
Speaker 5: You shouldn't be up right now.
Speaker 3: Wait, I can get so.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this hell? How long ago did
Speaker 2: this happen?
Speaker 5: Two years ago?
Speaker 6: And right near?
Speaker 2: How bad were your injuries?
Speaker 6: Nearly dead?
Speaker 5: If it was one second shorter, I'd be talking to
Speaker 5: you and your peppies up in heaven.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you survived. Did you spend time in
Speaker 2: the hospital.
Speaker 5: Or went to where rehab idiotic and quincy?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 5: You know what happened there? They robbed me of all
Speaker 5: my clothes in my wallet, so I was naked. I
Speaker 5: had to get my kniees to come over bring me
Speaker 5: supply clothes to leave. That's the kind of people we
Speaker 5: deal with around this horrible earth. Maggots, maggots, maggots.
Speaker 2: Okay, and that's that's a tough experience all around.
Speaker 5: Right now, I'm on the cell phone, but I'm really careful.
Speaker 5: I'm in a dock road in Hanover, but I'm driving
Speaker 5: twenty miles an hour, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, please please be careful because obviously there are people,
Speaker 2: there are people out there. How long did it take
Speaker 2: me to get back? How long did it take?
Speaker 7: Talk to you tomorrow?
Speaker 3: I have a story that will blow your socks off?
Speaker 6: Do you think I'm lying?
Speaker 2: May have you a call tomorrow. I'll have Rob give
Speaker 2: you my private direct line and I will get back
Speaker 2: to leave your number with with Rob, or just call Rob.
Speaker 2: Give give Harold my direct line, the seven zero three
Speaker 2: to three line, so that he'll be able to be
Speaker 2: in touch with me tomorrow and we'll we'll we'll talk.
Speaker 2: I will get back to you, I promise, Harold. Okay,
Speaker 2: thank you? All right, let's keep rolling here. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: go to Patrick down in the capital city of our
Speaker 2: great nation, the District of Columbia. Hey, Patrick, welcome back.
Speaker 4: I gotta tell you always the newsman, aren't you always
Speaker 4: the newsman. You know, give me your number, you know,
Speaker 4: give me your number. I'll find a story. I'll find
Speaker 4: a story. You're very good, Dan, you're very good.
Speaker 2: Well. I always hated when I was in television. I
Speaker 2: hated at the middle of the day when you realize
Speaker 2: you didn't have a story of your own and you
Speaker 2: had to take some assignment from the desk, which was,
Speaker 2: you know, cover some story that you really didn't have
Speaker 2: an interest in. It was like, oh, man, that made
Speaker 2: a long day.
Speaker 4: Well, we have tourists in Washington, d C.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, Okay, okay, they're.
Speaker 4: The most wonderful drivers that you could possibly deal with,
Speaker 4: and especially when you start doing these circles, and especially
Speaker 4: with the way Pennsylvania Avenue is between the White House
Speaker 4: and the capital. My gosh, but this is a driving area.
Speaker 4: I mean, we can be in Annapolis and then we'll
Speaker 4: just go up to Montgomery County at Rockville and then
Speaker 4: swing down through d C. And we'll end up in
Speaker 4: northern Virginia. Then we'll go over on the other side.
Speaker 4: I mean, we move all over the place here.
Speaker 2: But well, here's the deal. In Washington, I've spent a
Speaker 2: little bit of time in Washington over the years, and
Speaker 2: I think it's a relatively easy town when you've been
Speaker 2: there a while to get to know it, because it
Speaker 2: is sort of a grid system. But when you're first there,
Speaker 2: it's like where am I? You're overwhelmed. And if you're
Speaker 2: going in there as a tourist, it can be overwhelming, don't.
Speaker 4: You think, Yes, it does, yes, yes, And especially when
Speaker 4: they step out in front of buses and get killed, which.
Speaker 2: Is you know, that's one way to be overwhelmed.
Speaker 4: I guess as that happen, that's one w Yeah, that's
Speaker 4: one work do you every one? Well, here's here's something
Speaker 4: just really interesting. Now I have. I have a lot
Speaker 4: of good self will. I don't take my cell phone
Speaker 4: with me out of the house. I know everybody, and
Speaker 4: and it doesn't do me any good in Washington, d C.
Speaker 4: To call nine one one anyway, because you're kind of
Speaker 4: messed up. So you know, you're you got your on
Speaker 4: your own right, and there's no reason for me to
Speaker 4: have to talk on the phone. Because I remember walking
Speaker 4: up to a corner and there's a whole bunch of
Speaker 4: people and they're talking and talking, and none of them
Speaker 4: were talking to one another. They were all on cell phones,
Speaker 4: and I think that there's just missing so much of
Speaker 4: life there in our nation's capital. To be among people,
Speaker 4: but you're talking to somebody else who's not standing next
Speaker 4: to you, And I think there's this disassociation that this
Speaker 4: nasty cell phone does. And then when you put it
Speaker 4: behind the wheel, you're asking for trouble. You're just asking
Speaker 4: for trouble.
Speaker 2: But real quick, of all of all the drivers that
Speaker 2: you've that you've watched, Okay, what's the way. I'm trying
Speaker 2: to get some examples of people. I mean, we've heard
Speaker 2: about people eating as they're driving, and people who are
Speaker 2: putting on makeup. Have you ever known someone doing something
Speaker 2: and you'd say to yourself, oh my god, are they crazy?
Speaker 4: Reading the newspaper on the Beltway?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, folks got to keep up with the daily
Speaker 2: with the Washington Post, right.
Speaker 4: But real quick, I went to United Parcel Service yesterday
Speaker 4: to go with one of their step bands, to drive
Speaker 4: one of their step bands and see what their driver
Speaker 4: education and driver reinforcement program is. I am a much
Speaker 4: better driver because of UPS. They put their drivers through
Speaker 4: the good stuff and you can talk about safe driving
Speaker 4: with your members of UPS. I had one of the
Speaker 4: best discussions with with a trainer there, and they have
Speaker 4: a program that you'll go through for five days about
Speaker 4: being a good driver on one of those step bands.
Speaker 4: And really, I mean, yeah, it was. It's impressive. It
Speaker 4: is really impressive. Like you know, first of all they
Speaker 4: are on their step bands. They just make it clear.
Speaker 4: You look at your gauge and then you look out ahead,
Speaker 4: you look at your mirror, you look out ahead. You
Speaker 4: never go mirror gauge and then look out. You always
Speaker 4: keep your eyes moving and keep the big picture out
Speaker 4: in front of you and look ahead.
Speaker 2: And that's pretty simple. But it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 2: How did you get involved in that? Was that something
Speaker 2: that they gave to you because of your position or
Speaker 2: is that something that's available to anyone for the general public.
Speaker 4: If you wiggle your way in through their system, you
Speaker 4: can get it.
Speaker 2: Got you, okay? Play Well that's the truth. You know, Hey,
Speaker 2: that's if you learned something. You're a pretty sharp guy.
Speaker 2: I like that. Nothing nothing wrong with self education.
Speaker 4: No, No, it was you know, going to going and
Speaker 4: seeing ups and being with their drivers and actually driving
Speaker 4: one of those step bans. The great Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 2: Hope someone took a picture, so you have that as
Speaker 2: a souvenir.
Speaker 4: No, no, I don't need to even hears about myself.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 4: There, I was driving around the landover facilities, heading out
Speaker 4: towards the you know the I called it Redskins Stadium,
Speaker 4: but you know we don't call it Redskins Stadium anymore,
Speaker 4: and driving up all.
Speaker 2: Those fans are looking and change their name back now
Speaker 2: that they're winning too. They they've got a great young
Speaker 2: quarterback and they're winning. We should be so lucky here
Speaker 2: in New England.
Speaker 4: Well, you had your run. You had your run.
Speaker 2: We did. It was a good run. It's a good run.
Speaker 2: We're gonna get another one starting that run though. All right, Patrick,
Speaker 2: I gotta let you run. Washington, d C. Corresponding checking
Speaker 2: it in timely fashion. Thanks Bud. I appreciate it as always.
Speaker 2: You know, they have a great weekend, Happy Indigenous People's
Speaker 2: Day or happy and by the way, all seriousness, I
Speaker 2: want to wish happy on coport to you know, members
Speaker 2: of my audience who have the Jewish faith. This is
Speaker 2: a great weekend celebration for them with family and friends.
Speaker 2: And I know many of them are not listening tonight,
Speaker 2: but I hope that they realize that they are in
Speaker 2: our thoughts.
Speaker 6: And that's right.
Speaker 4: The banks will be closed on Monday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all. Well, it is a holiday, but we
Speaker 2: don't get it as a I think everything's closed on Monday.
Speaker 2: I think it's a national holiday. Some people are going
Speaker 2: to celebrate Columbus Day and some people will celebrate Indigenous
Speaker 2: People's Day. So whatever, we don't at iHeart it is
Speaker 2: not a recognized company company holiday at all. So I'll
Speaker 2: be working Monday night. We'll talk to you Monday, right, Thanks, Patrick,
Speaker 2: thanks man, talk to you soon. Have a great break,
Speaker 2: have a great one. Thanks, have a good weekend. Okay,
Speaker 2: here comes the news, and after the news we will
Speaker 2: return talking about distracted driving. I'm looking for some people
Speaker 2: who will fest up Harold fest up about his distracted driving,
Speaker 2: even well about him driving on a cell phone. You
Speaker 2: can call me in a cell phone and tell me
Speaker 2: what you think. Maybe again, I don't want to lose
Speaker 2: an audience, but I just think we have to be
Speaker 2: as careful as we possibly can be, because that one
Speaker 2: mistake can really come back to hurt someone else or
Speaker 2: hurt yourself, and also be a terrible burden to carry
Speaker 2: with you. With you for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2: Back on Nightside after this.
Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Let's get rolling. He're going to go to Robert and Wellesley.
Speaker 2: Robert next on Nightside.
Speaker 7: Welcome, good evening, Dan, interesting topic, interesting show as usual.
Speaker 7: I've found Patrick's comments very interesting and good suggestions. I'm
Speaker 7: going to try and pick up on some of those.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, good ideas.
Speaker 7: I think that you're probably basic. You must be basically
Speaker 7: a conscientious driver. And I had the shows and the
Speaker 7: fact that you're entertaining this topic, and I think I
Speaker 7: thought of myself as being a conscientious driver. But I've
Speaker 7: found times when I think I've been, you know, overlooked
Speaker 7: a speed limit sign or some some road sign or
Speaker 7: and that wasn't paying. And I think that's something that
Speaker 7: can happen. And they talk about highway hypnosis. I think
Speaker 7: that routine driving can also cause something that's a little
Speaker 7: bit like highway hypnosis. Is kind of a transfer something
Speaker 7: that you that can cause someone if we take it,
Speaker 7: If we take things too for granted, we can wind
Speaker 7: up missing something or some event on the on the road,
Speaker 7: something that's happening, or be less less alert than what
Speaker 7: you should be. Do you think that could be the case?
Speaker 2: I do, and you use the Great Highway hypnosis. I'm
Speaker 2: not a great long distance driver. I don't like heavy
Speaker 2: to drive, you know, drive to New York or something
Speaker 2: like that. I would much prefer just to, you know,
Speaker 2: take a train down in New York because it's not
Speaker 2: worth going. Those two hundred and twenty miles in the
Speaker 2: last thirty miles getting in or out of New York
Speaker 2: City are just brutal. So, but also just driving on
Speaker 2: the mass Turned Pike, the main roads, it can be
Speaker 2: pretty boring. I mean it, you know, turn the radio up,
Speaker 2: keep working back.
Speaker 7: What do you do to so? What do you do
Speaker 7: to make it interesting? I guess there's because they say
Speaker 7: there's nothing worse than a convert. At some point along
Speaker 7: the way, I sort of became a convert to focus driving,
Speaker 7: which I think is probably a little bit like what
Speaker 7: Patrick was talking.
Speaker 2: I'll understand that. Well. I think you got to you
Speaker 2: got to pay attention. I told my kids, and of course,
Speaker 2: you know it's easy for a parent to tell their kids.
Speaker 2: I told them when they started driving, I said, this,
Speaker 2: you know, is the most dangerous thing you'll ever do
Speaker 2: in your life unless you join the Marines. Okay, when
Speaker 2: you think about it, you're driving down the road with
Speaker 2: this two tons of steel going from sixty sixty five
Speaker 2: seventy miles an hour, and I used to emphasize to
Speaker 2: them that if you're driving sixty miles an hour. I
Speaker 2: learned this in drivers' education a long time ago. You
Speaker 2: know how many feet you're traveling per second if you're
Speaker 2: going sixty miles an hour.
Speaker 7: I could calculate that, but why don't you tell me?
Speaker 2: Okay, I know what it is, and you can calculate it.
Speaker 2: It's eighty eight feet a second. That means, if you're
Speaker 2: going sixty miles an hour, you can drive from one
Speaker 2: end of the football field almost to the other end
Speaker 2: of the footbric for three seconds.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's an important fact.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it just kind of puts it in some context.
Speaker 2: That's all you make it. It makes it more visual.
Speaker 7: Yeah, right.
Speaker 2: I'm probably a conscientious of driver as well. What's the
Speaker 2: worst thing you've seen of anybody, the stupidest thing you've
Speaker 2: seen someone doing while you're driving.
Speaker 7: Well, I don't know if you think this was I'm
Speaker 7: distracted driving or not, but I was on a highway.
Speaker 7: I think it was one twenty eight and I was
Speaker 7: sort of trapped in traffic, and the fellow behind me,
Speaker 7: I know, whether it's on medication or what, he would
Speaker 7: drive up. They almost touched the back of my car
Speaker 7: and then slow down and then drive up again. It
Speaker 7: was almost it almost seemed like he was nodding off
Speaker 7: at the wheel and I couldn't get out. I couldn't.
Speaker 7: I'd put on emergency lights. I couldn't get out of
Speaker 7: I was trapped in traffic. I couldn't get out in
Speaker 7: the other land to get away from. So there a
Speaker 7: few other things like that.
Speaker 2: I was stopped at a traffic light. Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Five or six years ago, my wife and I had
Speaker 2: gone to a fundraiser for it was actually for Zoo
Speaker 2: New England in Cambridge, and we were on Memorial Drive
Speaker 2: and we were stopped at one of the traffic lights
Speaker 2: of Memorial Drive and all of a sudden, ball boom,
Speaker 2: we get hit from behind.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: There wasn't a lot of damage. I mean there was some,
Speaker 2: but not It wasn't like the car was caped in,
Speaker 2: but it was quite a jolt.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 2: And now whenever I come to a traffic light and
Speaker 2: I'm stopping because it's red. I'm always looking in the
Speaker 2: rear view mirror and making sure that that person who's
Speaker 2: coming up behind me is slowing down, because, you know,
Speaker 2: I think that if I thought that I'm sitting there
Speaker 2: in that red light, and I think that this person
Speaker 2: behind me is either asleep at the wheel or not
Speaker 2: paying attention, and they're gonna rim into me again. If
Speaker 2: it was a traffic light but there was nothing coming
Speaker 2: either way, I'm going through it. And I know that
Speaker 2: technically you're breaking the law, but I'm just telling you
Speaker 2: that I'm having been hit once stopped at a traffic light.
Speaker 2: It's not a feeling I want to enjoy again.
Speaker 7: Oh, I would say, I would say, I think that
Speaker 7: would Yeah, thank you very.
Speaker 2: Much, have a great weekend. Okay, let me go next
Speaker 2: to kN What did I do there? Rob? What the
Speaker 2: heck did I do? Okay, I got wrong, hit the
Speaker 2: wrong button. Let's go to Ken in Hudson, Ken next
Speaker 2: on Nightside.
Speaker 6: How are you good? How are you good?
Speaker 2: I have no idea what I did. I almost took
Speaker 2: myself off the air.
Speaker 6: I think I was just it's getting late. Yeah, I
Speaker 6: just wanted to come and like I used to go
Speaker 6: to the kind of when you failed off for business.
Speaker 6: And one day on my way to work during rush hour,
Speaker 6: I was passed on the left side by a woman
Speaker 6: that was reading like a tabloid newspaper. And I saw
Speaker 6: this and I said, my god, and then I started
Speaker 6: honking the horn, and she just kept the paper up
Speaker 6: in her hands, and I think she actually accelerated out
Speaker 6: of the way, you know, on like on a five
Speaker 6: lane in each direction highway, you know. And then way
Speaker 6: back in high school, there was one of the bus drivers,
Speaker 6: well we used to look in the rear view mirror
Speaker 6: because we were a pretty rowdy bus crowd and and
Speaker 6: you know, and I'm saying, my god, you know, there's
Speaker 6: a there's a bus full of kids and she's looking
Speaker 6: in the rear view mirror to see who's making, you know,
Speaker 6: noise in the back. And I said, well, either you know,
Speaker 6: either one of these cases, I mean could injure a
Speaker 6: lot of people.
Speaker 2: And it was the kids that were causing the distraction.
Speaker 2: I mean, she became a distracted bus driver because of
Speaker 2: the kids in the bus.
Speaker 6: Interestingly enough, well allegedly we were we were out again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was kind of on school buses. What don't
Speaker 2: you have a school buses seatbelts.
Speaker 6: That's true, there's no seatbelts.
Speaker 2: On school buses. What are we thinking. I know that
Speaker 2: they don't want to have kids get into a school
Speaker 2: bus with on fire and cock it out of the
Speaker 2: seat belt. I think that is what the theory is.
Speaker 2: But boys, sounds like a pretty dangerous theory.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, it would be a lot more saying with seatbelts.
Speaker 6: I agree with that. And you know, I think the
Speaker 6: chances of the bus igniting would would be pretty minimal
Speaker 6: compared to getting thrown around. Yeah. And then another time
Speaker 6: I was literally it was on a you know one
Speaker 6: in Natick, and I was just waiting for the oncoming
Speaker 6: traffic to clear out of the way so I could
Speaker 6: take a left into my driveway and some guy behind
Speaker 6: me hit my car and I went. I literally ended
Speaker 6: up in the backseat of my car and I went
Speaker 6: across the lane and I ended up on a boulder.
Speaker 6: The car ended up on a boulder in the neighbor's yard.
Speaker 2: And that that experience, that that has to be a
Speaker 2: twenty ten thousand dollars accident at least.
Speaker 6: Well, yeah, that that was that was not good for
Speaker 6: the car at all and you know, I got out
Speaker 6: of the car okay, and the the you know, the
Speaker 6: paramedics showed up and they asked me if I needed
Speaker 6: to go to the hospital, and I declined it. But
Speaker 6: I had one heck of a whiplash, you know. For
Speaker 6: the next couple of ys hit.
Speaker 2: The guy that hit you the woman versus that hit you,
Speaker 2: did they stop?
Speaker 6: Yeah? I think so? Yeah, I think so because I
Speaker 6: think that car was damaged. But my roommates, you know,
Speaker 6: heard the accident. They came out of the house and
Speaker 6: they said they could see like, you know, cancer beer
Speaker 6: in the sky's car and you know, I don't know. Yeah,
Speaker 6: so I don't know. And you know, it was daylight,
Speaker 6: so this guy is obviously starting his weekend early. But yeah,
Speaker 6: I mean there's this I think it's good that you
Speaker 6: have in the show that has you know, points out
Speaker 6: you know, people after they've been driving away, they get
Speaker 6: kind of nonchalant and they just do stupid things. And
Speaker 6: I think reminding people that you're having you're not the
Speaker 6: only one on the road. There's other people around you
Speaker 6: that it's important to, you know, stay attention if you're driving, drive,
Speaker 6: don't do other things. You know, and it's just it's
Speaker 6: just really disappointing because you know, I'm sure my my
Speaker 6: story reflects out of other people's stories.
Speaker 2: I'll bet, I'll bet that there are plenty of people
Speaker 2: who are identifying with your story. Ken. I love the story.
Speaker 2: You called before us.
Speaker 6: It's your first time, No, this is the first time.
Speaker 2: We got the virtual studio audience here ready to give
Speaker 2: Roger with applause. Thanks, I appreciate it, Thank you very
Speaker 2: much again, looking forward to your second call. Thanks again.
Speaker 6: Okay, take care, a great night.
Speaker 2: Interesting that subjects like this pool our first time callers.
Speaker 2: Quick break, I got Jim, Charlie, Mike and Mary, and
Speaker 2: then we have the twentieth hour, So don't go anywhere,
Speaker 2: stay with us here at Nightside. I got a great
Speaker 2: topic for the twentieth hour, trust me on that one.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're gonna go next. I tell you we're gonna
Speaker 2: go next to talk with Jim. Jim, you were next
Speaker 2: on Nightside. Appreciate you calling in. Let's talk about distract
Speaker 2: the drive and go ahead, Jim.
Speaker 8: Okay, Dan, how are you good?
Speaker 2: Sir? What's going on.
Speaker 6: Well, my.
Speaker 8: View on this is that, well, to answer your question,
Speaker 8: the most distracted thing I ever did was drinking behind
Speaker 8: the wheel actually, you know, having an open container and
Speaker 8: just drinking some driving down the road.
Speaker 2: But my opinion, gee, I don't know how long ago that,
Speaker 2: but that was accepted a long time ago. It was
Speaker 2: almost like that, yeah right if passion and people don't
Speaker 2: understand that anymore. But mothers again, driving kind of change that,
Speaker 2: you know a little bit.
Speaker 8: So my my view on this is that I almost
Speaker 8: everyone is either even if they're not looking at a
Speaker 8: cell phone or playing with their makeup or something, you know, uh,
Speaker 8: their mind could still be somewhere else, so they may
Speaker 8: be distracted. And uh so between the people that are
Speaker 8: there driving you know, just disobedient to the law and
Speaker 8: the ones that are distracted, I figure, everybody's got something
Speaker 8: going on and I can't control it. I can't stop
Speaker 8: them from being distracted or disobedient, but I just can
Speaker 8: be defense, you know, stay defensive. And there's a number
Speaker 8: of different defensive driving techniques, but the best one I
Speaker 8: ever learned was uh, you know, California Highway Patrol defensive
Speaker 8: driving course. They taught me about this thing called the
Speaker 8: space cushion. And to me, the space cushion is you know,
Speaker 8: and sometimes the space cushion is behind me, and so
Speaker 8: I just need to slow down a little bit to
Speaker 8: get into it. Sometimes in front of me, so I
Speaker 8: got up. But they taught us about the space cushion,
Speaker 8: and it's kind of a funny concept when you think
Speaker 8: about it, but the space cushion is very to me.
Speaker 8: That's kind of my that's my main tactic that I use.
Speaker 2: So what you mean is, don't tailgate the guy in
Speaker 2: front of you, particularly in the left lane. Right.
Speaker 8: Well, sometimes, yeah, most of the time that's what it is.
Speaker 8: But sometimes you look behind you and it's just nothing
Speaker 8: but a gigantic tidal wave of other cars, and you
Speaker 8: look in front of you and there's a big open area,
Speaker 8: so you can accelerate and go around them and just
Speaker 8: get to a place of safety. Another space cushion.
Speaker 2: Oh, I get that. But what is always interesting to
Speaker 2: me is I like to try to leave a lot
Speaker 2: of between myself and the car in front of it,
Speaker 2: because I always assume that the person in front of
Speaker 2: me might have an animal runout and roll, They might
Speaker 2: hit the brakes real quickly. I never I'm not a tailgater.
Speaker 2: And I love when you get behind someone in the
Speaker 2: left lane it is going slow, they're going sixty five,
Speaker 2: so you're backing off you're going sixty five, and or
Speaker 2: are you going seventy and they're going seventy and you
Speaker 2: have some guy come up behind you doing eighty. I
Speaker 2: love to get I used to, you know, say oh,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm not now, I move over, I get
Speaker 2: out of the way, because then they'll be on that
Speaker 2: the bumper of the guy aheadia And it's like a game.
Speaker 2: It's almost I watch it. And then when when that
Speaker 2: guy gets in the in the left hand lane and
Speaker 2: he kicks it up to ninety or something, I think
Speaker 2: to myself, you know what if if he'll get caught
Speaker 2: and some police office will pull him over and he'll
Speaker 2: spend some time on the side of the road. That's
Speaker 2: what I think.
Speaker 8: Stay difficult, We got to stay rational and try to
Speaker 8: maintain it's cushion.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Hey.
Speaker 8: The other the other thing they taught me about was
Speaker 8: the imaginary island.
Speaker 2: Really, what's that one?
Speaker 8: Well, they told me there was an imaginary island, and
Speaker 8: then they started joking around about were there any girls
Speaker 8: on the island or gotcha?
Speaker 2: All right, alright, we'll save that for another night. Thanks Jim,
Speaker 2: we'll talk soon. Have a great weekend. Okay, thanks you,
Speaker 2: good one bye. Let's go to Charlie and belly him.
Speaker 2: Charlie want to get you and Marion havebroline as well.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Charlie, how are you doing that?
Speaker 6: Dane Way?
Speaker 3: I knew it was quite a while when you lived.
Speaker 3: I was when you were a reporter. You were on
Speaker 3: WBZ with Shelby Scott.
Speaker 2: I was on WBC for thirty one years less five days,
Speaker 2: but who's counting.
Speaker 3: I drove cabs too, good time. You know, I'm the
Speaker 3: city of Boston.
Speaker 2: I did I have a ride of your cab, Charlie.
Speaker 3: I picked up so many people of WBZ the thirty
Speaker 3: two seeing down the Brighton Center, and I used to
Speaker 3: get calls down at w BG hours.
Speaker 2: You're you're you're an experienced driver, and tell us what's
Speaker 2: the weirdest thing you've ever seen?
Speaker 3: I wasn't Brighton years. That happened by way. Haggard is
Speaker 3: on the corner of H Cornab and UH in Washington
Speaker 3: Street there.
Speaker 2: Okay, tell us your time as a driver, what's the
Speaker 2: weirdest distracted driving that you've ever seen.
Speaker 3: Oh that's crazy. You're down here and Bellingham. They drive
Speaker 3: like idiots, especially the Rhode Island. Tags like like where
Speaker 3: I live, you know, like I'm going down the street
Speaker 3: to Steve Women's body. I'm going to Steed women. The
Speaker 3: people passing the double swallowed Lyne. You're driving like idiots.
Speaker 3: You can go all the way up. You can take
Speaker 3: one O nine down here and you can get away
Speaker 3: in UHD Midway and you drive all the way up
Speaker 3: uh By malls. He's one of the child's here in
Speaker 3: western Roxbury.
Speaker 2: I know exactly what you mean.
Speaker 3: You can drive all there's one police schools.
Speaker 6: On the world, not one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well maybe sometimes we don't see them. I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Charlie. Have you retired from from driving?
Speaker 2: Are you still working?
Speaker 3: No, I'm almost eighty years old. I didn't. I drove
Speaker 3: on once in a once in a blue moon, you know,
Speaker 3: but about twenty years forty years hopping on. But I drove.
Speaker 3: I've done a lot of security with the Special Police.
Speaker 3: Live Special Crop in the back of the na Geral
Speaker 3: Hopital hot Place. What are your place?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I used to live down by I used to
Speaker 2: live in Longfellow Place, long time ago, long time ago.
Speaker 3: Judge was down there. Who's at Emerson Place, Judge adlo Oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, surely remember him?
Speaker 3: Drive around, got around the phone there, all right, all.
Speaker 2: Right, Charlie, got one more. I gotta get in here,
Speaker 2: so I'm gonna bid you.
Speaker 3: That's why I wanted to be faster with jam.
Speaker 2: Talk to you soon, jolly appreciate it. Let me go
Speaker 2: next to Marion. Hebro Mary next on nice Saga, right ahead,
Speaker 2: Hello Dan.
Speaker 9: Nice to hear from you. Well, I'm calling you, thank you.
Speaker 9: I have a quick story. My older brother and I
Speaker 9: were traveling up to Maine, to Lisbon, Maine because they
Speaker 9: have a Moxie festival, the drink, the tonic, the soda,
Speaker 9: and his grandson was going to be riding in a
Speaker 9: Moxie van, a.
Speaker 6: Cute little one.
Speaker 9: So I believe in GPS, but my brother does not.
Speaker 9: We're driving along and I'm sneaking on my phone. I
Speaker 9: have the GPS going, and he gets to a point
Speaker 9: and he says, dang, I really don't. I'm not really
Speaker 9: sure where we are. So he takes out from behind
Speaker 9: the seat. Didn't know he had it in the back seat,
Speaker 9: a huge mongous Rand McNally.
Speaker 2: Map books, an atlas. We would call that a.
Speaker 9: Map at let's take you. I should know that an atlas.
Speaker 2: That's old school. That is old school.
Speaker 9: This was only five years ago, Dan, And he takes it.
Speaker 3: He opens it up.
Speaker 9: It's post a size, and he's driving the car. We're
Speaker 9: going sixty five with his knees. And I'm not trying
Speaker 9: to freak out, but I just carefully said to him,
Speaker 9: we are He said, we're only thirty five miles away.
Speaker 9: I said, I'm not, according to my notes here. He
Speaker 9: said what I said, we're one hundred and thirty five
Speaker 9: miles away. I just I said, please let me use
Speaker 9: my phone, please, because.
Speaker 2: I'm flat out of time. Did you finally get there?
Speaker 9: Yes?
Speaker 2: Okay, and I'll bet you you used your GPS and
Speaker 2: not his atlas.
Speaker 3: Yeah right, all right.
Speaker 2: Thanks Mary. Mary. I'm up at the break, so I
Speaker 2: gotta let you run. I wish I caught to you earlier.
Speaker 2: It was a great story.
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you, bye bye, all good night.
Speaker 2: I think we're about a time, right Rob. Tell tell
Speaker 2: Bobby he wants to hold on, we'll take him on
Speaker 2: the other side. I got a good twentieth Hour coming up.
Speaker 2: Stay with us one night side