S13Ep3 Story Series: Cooler Weather Brings Driving Hazards

Cooler weather has wildlife on the move underscoring the critical need for driver awareness and the application of SafeStart principles on the open road. 

Host: Danny Smith
Guest: Joe Tanarelli

Transcript

Driving Safety and Error Prevention

Danny Smith 0:07

Welcome back to Safe Talk with Safe Start . I'm Danny Smith and today we continue our story series , and joining me for this episode is one of my favorite people , our fellow Safe Start consultant , Joe Tantarelli . Joe , welcome back to the podcast .

Joe Tantarelli 0:21

Thanks , Danny . Just keep it on the down low . You're my favorite too .

Danny Smith 0:26

We'll just keep that between us , though , right ? Yeah , so you know , after a brutal summer , Joe , I don't know about you , but things are finally starting to cool off a bit . Here I'm looking long-range the forecast and actually seeing some lower temps , so that actually makes it a perfect time for your story . You know , I even bought a bag of candy corn at the store the other day . To me , that's always a sure sign that fall is on the way when you start to see that back in the stores . For a lot of our listeners , fall will also no doubt bring visions of hunting season starting to start , and with that , certainly , we start to see more and more movement with animals out in the woods and well , as we'll hear in a moment , on the roadways right .

Joe Tantarelli 1:07

Yeah , yeah , I think they hate the heat more than we do . We don't see them much , except for when the sun goes down in the summertime , so yeah , they'll be on the move .

Danny Smith 1:18

Absolutely , you know . This also makes it a perfect time for us to all get our guard back up , if you will , in regard to them , especially if you live in a rural area or if you're going over the river and through the woods in a few weeks or months to go see grandma . Right , yeah , absolutely , absolutely . So , Joe , tell us a bit about your story . I understand it involved you and your son-in-law , is that right ?

Joe Tantarelli 1:48

Yeah , and within two weeks of each other , Kyle , my son-in-law and I hit deer . Oh wow , my truck and his truck .

Danny Smith 1:51

So yeah , that reminds me of a conversation I had back when I was still with my previous employer . I remember asking our shipping and receiving manager over in our Mississippi plant . He was a big time deer hunter . I asked him one day in the fall . I said , hey , have you killed any deer yet this year ? And he said , oh yeah , my wife and I have killed three . And I said , oh , does she hunt with you ? And he said no , I shot one . She took out one with her car and totaled it and then took out the second with a rental car about the same time a week later . So totaled both , both vehicles . So they had taken out three and two cars in the process .

Joe Tantarelli 2:26

So yeah , I guess Kyle and I should feel lucky that it's only been , uh , two deer in the short period of time . We live about a farm field away from each other and my wife and I pitch in because they've got three children and we try to help run those grandchildren out to their extracurricular events . And our family couldn't perform those functions if we didn't have all the vehicles functioning , at least three out of the four . So we set up a game plan . Kyle took his truck in for repair first and obviously he asked me to pick him up after he dropped off . Well , I agreed , but I told him you know you gotta let me know as soon as you leave work . That gives me an hour to get prepared to be able to pick you up at the body shop , and I had a lot I needed to do . So the one thing was a top priority I needed to winterize our camper and it just happened to be that day gave me the window to be able to do that . So as I was in the middle of that job at the campground , Kyle texted me and let me know that he's almost at the body shop . Not what I was asking for .

Joe Tantarelli 3:36

I immediately started to get anxious and I got to hurry and load the tools , clean up , lock up , get going . I was driving a couple of miles per hour over the speed limit until the inevitable happened . I was stuck behind who I thought was the most slowest person in the world started to follow a little closer because of that anxiety and tailgating and feeling anxiety . Those are telltale signs of another state . I thought how would you feel if somebody was tailgating your mom like this ?

Joe Tantarelli 4:08

And that immediately caused me to back off a little bit and I thought she'll turn here pretty soon anyway . And she did . So I , no sooner than got back up to speed and you guessed it , now I'm behind the real slowest driver on the planet , 15 miles per hour under the speed limit . My patience was getting really thin . I realized I was following too close again , so I calmed down , backed off and finally an opening to pass came . I assessed the pass , plenty of time and room . Right before I committed to the pass , I just happened to see an 18-wheeler up there a little ways and it was coming my way . So as I was approaching , and also an intersection of two main state highway .

Danny Smith 4:58

Wow, so let's stop there and boy , this story is packed full of a lot of different SafeS tart concepts , so in a moment we'll have you pause the podcast and you can focus state-to-error pattern first of all , but also , I'd invite you and urge you to think about and discuss with your team the CERT that Joe could use , and there's a lot to unpack here , so don't forget how to discuss how bad this could have been potentially as well . Then come back to us when you're done . Okay , we're back . So remember , your answers don't have to match ours . It's going through the process . That's really the important part , right ? However , thinking about what we're saying , our insights , those may shed some light on the Safe Start concepts , maybe in a way that you haven't thought of before . So , Joe , first of all , let's start with the state- to- error pattern . What did you come up with there ?

Joe Tantarelli 5:53

Thanks , Danny . I was rushing . Obviously I didn't want Kyle to wait , even though he didn't follow the agreement that we had calling when he left work , not when he was almost at the body shop . So that kind of threw me into a frenzy . I was mad , I was frustrated with the slow drivers . Both led to mine not being exactly on the task that was involved . My eyes were thank God to see the 18- wheeler and stay out of the line of fire .

Danny Smith 6:23

Exactly , yeah , and you know a couple of points I'd like to make here . You know , other people's behavior can influence our behavior , and that's really important for all of us to keep in mind , especially as spouses and parents . Somewhat related to that directly to the rushing is rushing is often self-imposed by our own expectations or our perceptions of other people's expectations . Finally , we can't always keep our mind on task , and that's why it's okay if you have your eyes on task , but I mean , that's where your reflexes come into play . Or , in your case , you saw the 18-wheeler or the transport truck and that's what triggered you . That was your cue to get back in line there , right ? I'm interested in your thoughts on the CERTs , Joe , because there is quite a bit there , right .

Joe Tantarelli 7:11

Yeah well , what you said there about the other people and the environment that you're in and how that triggers some of that stuff , I'm pretty sure you lived with me my whole life . I self-triggered twice on rushing , but that frustration overrode that trigger so I had to self-trigger again as I was preparing to pass . What if the guy I'm passing realizes he's going so slow and speeds up when I get beside him ? That's a pretty common scenario and I'm pretty sure all of our listeners will agree with me on that one right there , and I analyzed the event in real time , or you could say I anticipated his potential error . Now the 18-wheeler is too close , so is the intersection . I've also been working on building habits , maintaining safe distance and looking for a line of fire and throw in , looking at others , and I had all four CERT s working at once in that situation .

Danny Smith 8:07

Yeah , I think the idea here you really did self-trigger on the rushing, frustration there , for sure , yeah , yeah , and kind of ask yourself there , you know , hey , is it really worth the risk ? And sometimes I think that's what we really have to do , right , is just pause and ask ourselves , hey , so what if I'm five minutes late , 10 minutes late , you know , at least you get there . And I think that's an incredible question for us to stop and ask ourselves is it really worth the risk ? And I remember , I remember when I first heard Larry ask a group that question , is it worth it ? I immediately followed that one away . He's like , yeah , that's a keeper question , right there for sure , all right , so , Joe , that all kind of sets up my last question here .

Joe Tantarelli 8:56

And that's a great question . It takes some time to talk it through An 18-wheeler . I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose that battle . I would have left Sharon a widow , my wife . I got close in our 20s and I realized later how much pain I inflicted on her and our two small kids at the time , many years ago . I never want to put my family through that again as long as I live . And I here's the next thing I would have left my grandchildren , my children , fatherless back in that time of my life and , more importantly , I would have left my grandkids without their grandpa . I got a lot more to teach those little kids and a ton , a whole lot more love to give them too .

Danny Smith 9:39

I got you . Yeah , you know I . I had an opportunity just a few days ago . My seven-year-old grandson Carson was here before school started back for us . He was staying with us for a week and he rounded the corner near my desk to run out into our sunroom , which you know everything at seven years old , you have to run to go get to , I'm quite sure . But as he came through he tripped over the threshold going into the sunroom there and of course he was angry at the threshold . So I pulled him back in here and said hey , let's , let's pause for a second , let's have a conversation about that . But you're right , I mean , it's kind of like our fellow SafeSt art consultant , Jack Jackson , says you know , if I'd known about grandkids first , I'd probably just skip the regular kids .

Joe Tantarelli 10:24

You know for sure yeah , it's not that I love my grandkids more , but maybe I do . I don't uh .

Danny Smith 10:33

Anyway , he definitely got that right you were telling me something right before we got on the air here , I think is really , really , uh , applicable here as well . Talking about the kids and the grand things they teach us . Um , this involves squidward , right ? Yeah it sure did it ?

Joe Tantarelli 10:51

Sure did , uh , my granddaughter Myla . She's 10 and she made it perfectly clear to me and grandma that she's going to marry Sponge SpongeBob when she gets old enough . So she just happened to come across a Squidward Weeble Wobble . And if those of you don't know what a Weeble Wobble is , they weeble and they wobble , but they don't fall down . So she took that little tiny Weeble Wobble Squidward and put it on the dash of my truck and I am practicing , building a habit out of love for that little girl , that I try everything that I possibly can to keep Squidward from flying off the dash . And that's better than any insurance program that you plug into the computer on your vehicle , because that Squidward is telling me on a daily basis that I need to quit driving so erratically . So that is definitely helping me out with behind the wheel activities and I immediately think a Mila about that . So , yeah , it's extremely important to go the extra mile and take Safe Start home with us .

Danny Smith 11:56

That's great , you know and I don't want to get too far in the neuroscience here because that isn't the topic of the conversation today but seeing that on your dash , that is the visual cue for you to work on that habit and work on your driving habits , and that's one of the things that we need for habit formation is the neuroscience teaches us we need those cues and that is a visual cue for you to remind you , even just reminding your subconscious , uh , to work on that habit . That's great , great , yeah , mention there also , Joe , you said that , uh , that you had hit a deer as well , uh , well , we'll have to wait and come back and get that story another time , but uh , we

Safe Start Podcast Wrap-Up

Danny Smith 12:35

are . We are running a bit out of time here on the podcast . I'd like to thank you first of all for carving out some of your time so we can record this today . Always a pleasure to have you here with us .

Joe Tantarelli 12:45

And the same thing to you , Danny . It's always a pleasure for me too , and thanks for having me again . I really appreciate it .

Danny Smith 12:51

All right for everybody , for Joe , myself , the entire Safe Talk and Safe Start family thanks for joining us today . Here's a thought to take from this episode and all those in this series, take this home , discuss it with your family . After all , Safe Start really can go everywhere that your family goes , and that's one of the beauties the portability of this process and the concepts and techniques and skills that we're talking about . That's one of the beautiful things about it f or Safe Talk with Safe Start, I'm Danny Smith, have a great day .