Melanie Cole, MS (Host): Well, it's summertime when a lot of people are traveling and a lot of young people are out and about. We are here today to offer tips on staying safe on the road and especially how to help our young drivers stay safe. Welcome to It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole.

And today joining me is Officer Josh Greengard. He's an officer with the California Highway Patrol. Officer Greengard, thank you so much for joining us today. You know, I'm one of these nightmare moms because this is like something that I think about really all the time and every day, but I'd like you to start by telling us the primary cause of traffic accidents, because it seems today we have so many distractions. There's road construction, there's stuff all around. What do you see as the primary reason for accidents?

Officer Josh Greengard: Hi, Melanie, and thank you for having me. You know, it's usually distractions and speed. Both of those are the biggest combinations of traffic crashes that we see.

Host: So expand a little bit, Officer, on distracted driving, because nowadays cars have hands free, so you could text and just say, text somebody. But that to me is still, I mean, I remember back in the day, my parents told us the radio was a distraction, but nowadays, geez, the kids are texting. There is hands free, but there's maps and there's shuffle and there's music and there's, tell us about what distracted driving really is.

Officer Josh Greengard: In these new modern cars, there's distractions everywhere. Like you said, the radio, your cell phone. But really a distraction is anything that's going to take your eyes and your mind off the road. We have these Bluetooths that we can talk into and really not have to touch anything. But still, when you're driving at a speed of 65, 70 miles an hour on the freeway, you are not texting, but you're still thinking about texting, you're still voice to text type stuff, and your mind is still not fully on the road that's in front of you.

Host: So are we thinking that those hands free cell phone use is still not really safe? Cause you are thinking about other things.

Officer Josh Greengard: It's better, but, to be in the car, you need to fully focus on driving. Like I said, these Bluetooth technologies and the maps that we have, they've all aided in our driving experience, but they still are a distraction.

Yeah.

Host: Ease my mind Officer and the minds of all the mothers and fathers out there. When you see accidents, are the majority of them not fatal? Not huge? Are there trucks involved? Because that's my biggest fear is driving past trucks on the highway scares the crap out of me. When you see these things, are they mostly not fatal, but bad? But not fatal.

Officer Josh Greengard: Our mileage death rate in the state of California is very, very low. Most of our crashes are property damage only, or very, very minor injury crashes. I'll give you some stats just from the Newhall area office. We have 700 square miles of jurisdiction on the 514, the 126, and several, surface streets like some of the canyon roads. In January, we took 232 crashes. That may seem like a lot. That may seem like not a lot. But none of those were fatal crashes that month, right? So, I'm trying to ease your mind a little bit.

Host: You are easing my mind. You're really easing my mind. And I don't live in California, but it's a busy area. So that would hopefully translate to where I live and that it would translate to around the country really are the highways less safe than the roadways?

Officer Josh Greengard: No, I think it's all the same. I really do. It's not the roadways that's not safe. It's the drivers that are on it. If you do your due diligence and you stick to paying attention to the roadway and obeying the speed limit, there's half the battle right there. There's going to be people on the road who are in a hurry, let them go by. There's going to be people that you see distracted driving, try to stay away from them. So, being the defensive driver is a very, very good thing.

Host: I agree. Situational awareness, right? And you just really want to be the defensive driver and notice the people that are swerving or people looking down at their phones or any of that. And I'm just going to jump back for a second to trucks. I've always dreamed of having them have their own roadways where we were not driving next to them.

And again, ease my mind and some of the parents really, these shows are my therapy anyway. Can you let us know, are trucks involved in many of these accidents or not really? Are they pretty generally safe drivers?

Officer Josh Greengard: They're usually pretty safe drivers. Those guys are professional drivers. They get paid to take a load from A to B, whether that A is a couple of miles, or whether that A to B is several hundred miles or out of state miles. So if they get in car crashes or if they get tickets on their license, it directly affects their employment and their eligibility to be employed and their insurance rates to be employed.

So these guys want to mind their P's and Q's. They want to be a safe driver. They don't want to get in car crashes whatsoever.

Host: Yeah, it just seems like those rigs are so huge, you know, some of them and the double ones really just freak me out when there's two of those things in the back of them. And now back to the young people for a second. Often they drive recklessly. Again, they might be distracted. They're listening to loud music.

And they don't always listen to parents when they talk to them about safe driving. I'd like you to speak to parents in getting through to these young people, because I'm sure you do a lot of talks with young people, new drivers. I remember when my kids were new, we had an officer come in and speak to the kids.

So, speak to the parents on, what you want these kids to know.

Officer Josh Greengard: Yeah. I do several of those classes usually once a month. It's the teenagers and the parents are usually in the classes, the new drivers the 15, 16, 17 year olds. The main thing is, tell your kids buckle up, ensure their passengers are buckled up. Ensure that their passengers are good passengers and not screaming and yelling and and going crazy.

Tell them to stay focused on their driving. Avoid distractions like texting and staying off social media while driving. That's not the time or the place. Especially, if you're on the roadways and you have passengers in the car, the main focus is driving on that road getting from point A to point B.

Follow the speed limits. I know it's really hard for some people to follow the speed limits, but you gotta follow them for a reason. The road is designed for a 65 mile an hour speed. Some of the roads are designed for 25 and 35 mile an hour speeds. Don't be speeding in residential areas, because there's a bunch of kids playing, especially during summertime.

I know my kids play in the streets and sidewalks all the time. And you don't want to be caught up in a vehicle versus pedestrian. And then lastly, you never drive impaired. Never. Whether it be alcohol, drugs, prescription medication, you don't ever want to drive impaired. That will not turn out very well.

Host: Yeah, that's great advice. And I wish the kids would listen. I remember that the officer that came to speak to my children, he told us parents not to buy our kids cars, our new drivers. He said, don't. And that was his advice. He said, you know, let them use your cars until you are convinced they're good. Don't buy them or we'll end up seeing them. Do you agree with that?

Officer Josh Greengard: The thing is you give them a brand new car, and you pay for it, maybe they're not going to feel that it's really worth keeping it pristine and nice. I would agree with that 100%. Yeah.

Host: So now on to our older drivers and you and I spoke a little bit off the air about our older parents. What steps should they take to drive safely and how do we know when it's time for our older loved ones to say, you know what, it's enough now. I'm sorry, but driving is just not going to be something you can do anymore.

Officer Josh Greengard: With older drivers, it's very difficult, especially if they're family members, because that conversation is difficult. We talked off air a little bit. I had a 91 year old grandfather. When he got to about 88 or so, we had to have that conversation with him. We would drive in the car with him and we would notice there's a lot slower reaction times with everything that's going on.

And it was tough because that was his freedom. He had been driving since he was 16 years old. And to be 88, I'm not very good at math, but that's a long time driving. And you just have to be aware. Because it's very, very dangerous if you continue to let them drive. So you have to have that conversation.

And also if you're going to do that to your family members, you have to have opportunities for them to still go to the grocery store. So for me, I took my grandfather and grandmother to the grocery store once a week, I took them to all their doctor's appointments, later on in their life, because I felt like it was my responsibility and I just didn't want them being on the road. I didn't think it was safe. And I thought this was going to prolong their life by me doing these steps.

Host: I agree with you and I did the same. I drove my parents everywhere they needed to go once it came time and I think that's part of our honor. You know, it's an honor to help them get to that point when they helped us get to wherever we were. So I didn't mind that at all. And plus going to the doctor's appointments, you can listen in and make sure everything's copacetic, right?

I'd like you to offer your best advice, Officer, and I'm not sure if we missed anything here. We talked about highways and trucks and our teens and our older loved ones. Give us your best advice. Every single day, you're dealing with people on the roadways. I'd like you to speak to everyone now and

let us know what you see, what you want us to know about safe driving and speeds and seatbelts and the safety of cars today. Just kind of wrap it all up for us.

Officer Josh Greengard: Well, the California Highway Patrol, wants to send a message of your safety is paramount. Let's work together to make your driving as safe as it possibly can be. Enjoyable for yourself and everyone on the road. You want to make sure that you get from point A to point B as safe as possible.

 The number one thing that we want is to get the motoring public to point A to point B. The number one thing that you're doing throughout your career and your life, is driving back and forth. That's the one that's going to put you in the most peril every single day. And people don't realize that you're driving a four or 5, 000 pound vehicle at speeds of 40, 50, 60, 65, 70 miles an hour.

And it can be dangerous if you're not doing the right thing, if you're not doing it safely. So, people expect you to get to your destination, your family expects you to get to your destination, your office, employees expect you to get to your destination, your friends expect you to get to there, and then everyone else on the road wants you to also drive safe because they want to get to their destination safely too.

Host: That is great advice. And I think it's something we all need to hear. And parents, please play this show for your kids. Let them hear from Officer Greengard. He sees it every single day and we all want to stay safe. Just as he said, we all want to get to where we're going and get there safely. And for more safe driving tips, please visit the National Safety Council website at nsc.org. And you can also learn more about safe driving at Henry Mayo Newhall's free online health library found at library.henrymayo.com. That concludes this episode of It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. Please always remember to subscribe, rate, and review It's Your Health Radio on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and Pandora.

Until next time, let's all drive safe and enjoy the summer. I'm Melanie Cole.