Of course you think you can drive while listening to the radio, talking on your cell phone and eating, with kids and pets in the back seat. Who doesn’t? Every single person who had an accident from being distracted thought he or she could handle such “multi-tasking,” right?

So just how big a distraction are distractions? Last year, only 4,300 accidents were caused by the major distractions. Oh, that’s 4300 a day. Otherwise known as 3 a minute around the clock, or, one quarter of all auto accidents, or 1.5 million a year. (Technically, almost all accidents are caused by someone “being distracted,” but we’ll settle for a quarter due to specific, known distractions.)

DISTRACTIONS OUTSIDE THE CAR

Somehow, distractions outside the car aren’t nearly as deadly as those inside the car. Maybe it’s because at least the driver is looking outside. The best thing is to have a carpool and let your riders describe these distractions to you while you get everyone safely to your destination.

Other accidents. Don’t you just love the term “gapers’ block?” Unlike good turns, one bad accident does not deserve another. Instead of looking at the accident, you should be especially careful, watching out for all the other gapers.

Billboards. How is it that the same people who can’t stand five seconds of a television commercial will spend more than that time reading a billboard? Take a speed-reading class or save the rest of the billboard until tomorrow.

Naked hitchhikers. We can’t in good conscience tell you to ignore this if you should be so lucky as to encounter it. Be careful, though, if you should pick up the hitchhiker; inside-car distractions are much more dangerous.

The world in general. If you are old enough to remember those great commercials that sang “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet,” then you are old enough to know better. If you want to see all the sights, do it in half-second bites or stop the car and get out.

The weird things people are doing in their cars. No, this is not just a segue to the next section. If that other driver is doing something weird or stupid and you are watching him, then neither of you is watching the road. This is like the gapers’ block, only you are watching an accident waiting to happen.

DISTRACTIONS INSIDE THE CAR

Funny how such a little space can be so much more fascinating than the typical highway’s dozen or so two-ton wheeled projectiles that surround you and can merge their metal with your marrow in less than four seconds.

But today’s cockpit is a panoply of pretty lights and pushbutton possibilities, and those are the distractions that you can (and definitely should) know well enough not to have to look down at for more than a second.

Just remember, if your car is going sixty miles per hour, you just went more than half a football field in the two seconds you were looking down – unless you hit something along the way.

Food: Depending on who you ask, it’s either just ahead of or behind cell phones as the number-one distraction. Besides the driving with one hand, you’re constantly looking down to pick up your drink or put down your food. Plus, you spill something and you’re big-time distracted. You spill something on yourself and you are mega-disaster-distracted.

Cell phones: As more and more phones get more and more complex, the driver spends more and more time looking away from the road. Compared to the typical Blackberry, a color tv is less distracting. Added to that, is the one-handed driving. Plus, scientists contend that talking on the phone distracts your mind, which slows down all of your reaction times.

Children: The tonal range of children is a survival tool: the sounds they emit demand immediate attention. But, if either you or your children are going to survive, you must anticipate all of their distracting demands before you back out of the driveway, and have a half-second solution. Or, train yourself to put up with the ear-splitting dementia until you are safely stopped.

Stereo and Radio: Even if you are the hunt and peck type, when it comes to everything on the dash, you must learn to trust your fingers – or stick with the adjustments you made before you put it in gear, until you can stop or have a passenger fiddle with it.

Same goes for mirrors...
And GPS...
And a map...
And air conditioning...
And the glove compartment...
And the cigarette lighter...
And it goes double for make-up!

According to statistics, you have probably already had a close encounter or a near miss because of these distractions. So, please, take them to heart, as warnings of what could have happened. Train your mind to think of the other cars and trucks as just as interesting – no, more so – than anything and everything else. Considering they can kill you, that shouldn’t be too difficult.