Ep 199: Preventing Car Accidents, with my Dad, Dr Andrew Matthew

Car accidents are the leading cause of death for kids, teens, and young adults — but so many are preventable. In this episode, I sit down with my dad, pediatrician Dr. Andrew Matthew (and the safest driver I know!), to talk about what parents and teens can do to stay safe on the road.

Using information from this recent article:

Motor Vehicle Crash Prevention, New England Journal of Medicine, Vol 393, Issue 5 (July 31 2025)

We discuss:

• Why car accidents are the #1 cause of death for ages 5–29
• How texting while driving raises your crash risk 23-fold
• Practical tips for teaching teens to drive safely
• The truth about speeding, tailgating, and road rage
• When technology helps — and when it hurts
• Smart ways to talk to kids about car safety

If you’ve got a new driver at home, carpool often, or just want to be more mindful behind the wheel, this episode is full of practical, potentially life-saving tips.

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YouTube channel: Ask Dr Jessica

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

Hello listeners. This is Dr Jessica Hochman. I'm excited to share that I am now booking sponsorships for your child as normal for this fall. If you have a product, service or a message that you think our listeners would benefit from, whether it's for parents, kids, healthcare or family life in general, this could be a great opportunity. You can find details on how to sponsor by checking the show notes. Just click the link that says how to sponsor an episode, and I'll let you know for a good match and get back to you. Hi everyone, and welcome back to your child. Is normal. I'm your host. Dr Jessica Hochman, so many of you may not know this, but I actually work as a pediatrician with my dad, and he's been practicing pediatrics my entire life. And as you can imagine, growing up with a pediatrician for a dad, safety was a big theme in our house. So from car seats to bike helmets to dog bites, I heard about it all. Now as a pediatrician myself, I completely understand why, because we see firsthand how accidents affect families, and we want to do everything we can to help prevent them. So recently, my dad handed me an article to read from the New England Journal of Medicine called motor vehicle crash prevention, published July 31 2025 and one statistic really stopped me in my tracks. Car accidents are the number one cause of death for kids, teens and young adults, ages five to 29 and the article also highlights that many of these tragedies are preventable. So in this episode, my dad and I talk about practical evidence based tips to keep kids and all of us safer on the road, we cover everything from texting and distracted driving to speeding teen drivers seat belts and how technology has changed the way we drive. My hope is that this conversation inspires all of us to be more mindful behind the wheel, because a few simple changes make a big difference, not just for our families, but for everyone on the road. And before we get started, if you're enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a five star review wherever it is. You listen to podcasts, good reviews encourage others to listen, which really helps the podcast to keep growing. And thank you to all of you for being here today and for listening. I know your time is valuable. And now onto a conversation with one of my all time favorite human beings, my dad. Dr Andrew Matthew, and we're going to talk about car accident prevention. Welcome to your child is normal. Thank you for having me on today. Dr Hochman, I've been looking forward to having you on today, and I asked you to come on as a guest, because we work together. Correct, we work together as pediatricians. Correct, do you know how long it's been 1414, years this week? Oh, yeah. Well, been a good run. Hopefully it continues for many more years. So my dad, he likes to make sure that I stay on top of my pediatric reading. And last week, he came into my office and he dropped off a really interesting article about fatalities and car crashes. And I thought, why don't we talk about this on the podcast? Because I think it's a really important subject. Yes, it is. In fact, the article emphasized that approximately 43,000 people died in 2021 from car accidents. What made it more important of a pediatric discussion is the fact that between the age of five and 29 that's the most common cause for people to die, and so that includes as many people in the age range that we take care of. Wow. So I thought this would be good to talk about, because I don't want to scare people, but at the same time, when it comes to fatalities and car accidents, I do think that many of these accidents can be preventable, of course, not all accidents, but I do think there's things that we can do to make those numbers improve. I totally agree, by the way. I want to emphasize that, if I may, tell people how to drive better, it's not like I've been the perfect driver. Just about a week or two before my own driver's license test, I was counting railroad cars while I was driving, my dad was sitting next to me, and I bumped the car in front of me. So that was my last collision. Was very embarrassing of my three daughters, my older one was once in a car accident where she was pregnant and got hit from behind and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital. My middle daughter once decided to change lanes, going left against the traffic versus going right. When she realized it was difficult, she went right without signaling, and then she got hit by a car on the right, and my youngest daughter, while driving once received a text message, she looked at her cell phone and then bumped the Mercedes in front of her. So it's not like we've all been perfect. I didn't mention my wife, but she's been in a few too, as well. And you mentioned your only car accident was when as a couple weeks before I was 16 years of age, it was very embarrassing when I bumped the car in front of me, but that's really impressive, because you've been driving for a while and you haven't had any accidents since that time. Yes, and I think I've also been lucky. I'm not perfect, but sometimes you're just glad the other person. Looks up for you as well. Absolutely, it's definitely a collective societal effort to make sure we're all driving safely. But I have to tell you, you might get the title in my life of the safest driver I've ever met, which is why, after reading that article, I thought you'd be the perfect guest to have. Thank you very much. But again, I want to emphasize that I'm careful. I make sure I'm not on medication when I'm driving, such as alcohol, and I make sure that I'm wide awake. If I feel sleepy, I'll open up the window. I don't put on the music too loudly. I definitely don't text. That's a bad one. So let's talk about this a little bit more, because the article pointed out that over 30% of fatalities from car accidents happen when people have been drinking alcohol. So to me, that's something that especially nowadays, where Uber is readily available and there are other options besides driving that you can avoid driving under the influence, I think that's an important thing to think about, absolutely. First of all, if you're a teenage driver and the police pull you over, you're mandated to take the test for alcohol. If you don't, you can lose your license. If you do, and there is alcohol, you will have to go before the judge and lose your license. Yeah. So beyond the possibility of having a fatal car accident or getting into an accident, there are other repercussions. There are other ramifications. Absolutely, yes, all right, and you're always really good about that. Well, again, if I go to dinner with my wife and I have a glass of wine, my wife drives home. Always, that's an always, it'd be very embarrassing to be pulled over as a physician, have a blood alcohol level that's elevated and then have my license revoked or be put on probation. I don't want that. I don't want that either. Right now, I'm proud to say that you taught me to be a driver. Yes, and I'm really hoping I have a daughter who's almost 15 that you're gonna carry on the tradition and teach her how to drive. Yes, I'm gonna do my best and try not to yell. I'm sure you'll you'll do great, and you'll do great. I'll do my best. You're already hired. But the article pointed out that teenagers, and this might make sense just because teenagers tend to engage in riskier behaviors. But I think this is an important statistic to point out, that between the age of 16 and 20, they have a three times fatal crash rate compared to those that are older than the teenage years. So do you have any advice for parents that are teaching their kids to drive? Because that's a pretty alarming statistic to me. First of all, not to tailgate, because when the other car in front of you decides to make a decision, you have to be ready to counteract that decision. And as I often point out in the office to my patients who are learning to drive, I did have a patient once who had a step ladder. Come on the freeway in front of him. He was going 75 and then he swerved at his girlfriend and he were killed. So speeding, tailgating or not being able to make a quick decision all contributed to this tragedy. So you're saying some things are unavoidable, like objects on the road, and if you have more time to react, the better off you'll be, yes, wow, that's a scary story. I tell that story all the time. When I discuss with patients how to get out of the car. People who are driving poorly often suggest that they tell the person driving that they feel sick to their stomach and are going to throw up, and that generally makes anybody pull off to the side of road, and whereupon you can call your parents and they'll pick you up and be glad that you did that, rather than see you in the hospital. That's a good idea. So you're saying, if you're driving with someone and it feels unsafe, that's a good out that you can use, right and use your intuition if somebody's texting while they're driving, if the music is on too loud while they're driving, if they're doing a lot of lane changing, which just makes you unsafe, get out of the car. Why end up in the hospital? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So you talked about not tailgating. Do you have any rules of thumb, like, how does somebody know they're far enough away from the car in front of them? I think was mentioned that's like approximately a three to four second delay time. You can use objects on the road to determine that. Now, if you're going 60 miles an hour, that's 88 feet per second. Now if you're going faster than that, that's even more feet per second. So if the faster you go, you need more distance between you and the car in front of you to help with the reaction time necessary. Someone once pointed out to me that if you look somewhere else for two seconds and you're driving 65 miles per hour, that's almost the length of a football field. The other thing to mention, I know we're discussion is on driving, but earlier in January of 2023 a law was passed in case. California regarding pedestrians. So pedestrians are not killed by other pedestrians. They're killed by cars or bikes. And now the new law in California states that you can cross not at an intersection, as long as you do when it's safe. And as I read the law, it seemed it was very ambiguous, like, who's to determine what is safe. So if you're crossing the street at night, you may determine that it's safe, but you may not be wearing the proper color clothing, where a driver may be able to pick you out in time. I think that's really an important consideration, because there are certain instances where jaywalking may be beneficial if you really can see that there are no cars coming and it looks really safe, okay, but I do find in Los Angeles, there are a lot of people that cross, and it's hard to even tell if they're paying attention, and I always worry that somebody could accidentally hit the pedestrian. So it's interesting that that law passed. It makes me wonder if it's a good law, yes, especially a lot of people who are crossing the street have their cell phone in their hand and maybe either talking or whatever, but they're not paying attention to the road. Okay, so you talked about tailgating, you talked about speeding, which the article pointed out that a lot of accidents are related to speeding. But I personally think a big problem that we're now dealing with more than ever is texting. I think texting makes people very, very distracted when they're driving. I feel like it's getting worse and worse as time goes on, people will text if they glance around the road and see no highway patrol or police officers nearby. They feel that they can get away with it, but you run the risk that while you're texting, you may not necessarily get involved with the law, but you may get into an accident, and then you will get involved with the law. You're such a safe driver. Do you ever feel tempted to check your phone? Or how do you prevent yourself from checking your phone? I put it aside. I listen to the radio, any news that I can listen to in the radio, like sports or music, traffic reports I can use from the dials on the radio in my car. I don't need to text and talk to people. If they do call me, I will talk to them. But again, it's important for me to focus on the road, and I won't be able to give them as best my best attention. You know, I have to say there's a lot of times where I'll call you, I'll call you or mom on the phone, and if you're driving, I know I have to hang up the phone. You don't like to talk on the phone while you're driving, I don't You're so disciplined when driving. It's really admirable, because I know you're safe. It makes me feel happy that you're so safe. Well, as an older person, I don't want to spend a lot of my time in rehab. I want to enjoy my life so that I want to drive safely and get out of the car safely. I'm glad you think like that. And just to share, I found an interesting statistic that texting while driving increases your crash risk by 23 fold. And there's a statistic about teens. 39% of high school students reported texting or emailing while driving in the past month, that's according to the CDC, so texting is a serious risk for the teenage youth and all of us, I think what the parents could do request their kids do what they do at rock concerts, put the cell phone in a bag and zip it up while they're driving so you lose that temptation. I think that's a really good idea, because it is really, really tempting. I think the truth of the matter is, I believe every text can wait. There is no text out there that is worth the risk of getting in a car accident, but that temptation is very strong for people. People like to respond right away because they think it might be truly interesting, as you said. But again, it can wait. It can wait. Another thing about driving and distractibility is sometimes, and I did have one patient that I can recall who had road rage and sped up after the person who caused him difficulty, and the other individual took a photo with their phone of the license plate, reported it to the police, and this patient lost his license and had to go before the judge for road rage. So it's important to keep your cool if somebody does something that you do not like, and learn to forget about it and just stay away from that individual. I do think it's a skill to not let it affect you, like let's say somebody honks at you, for example, a lot of people are tempted to honk back or get upset back, but best, I think, just to think maybe they had a hard day. Who knows what's going on in their life, and just forget about it and move on. As you said, it's important to learn how to move on with a lot of things, but definitely when you're driving a two ton car. Okay, so other things that you've taught me to be safe, you're very careful around blind spots. Yes, and you're very careful when it comes to changing lanes. You're always cautioning me to change lanes ahead of time. Yes. I mean, I often see, I'm sure everybody who's been a driver seen somebody go from the fast lane all the way to the exit lane, like in three sections. They're just sliding across all the lanes. To me, that's dangerous drive. Driving, and they could easily hit a motorcycle or hit a car in front of them. And so if I know I'm gonna be getting off in a couple miles, I'm already thinking about it. So my understanding of the freeway system in our community is really good, so I know how much time I need to get over and I like to position myself so I'm not doing at the last minute. I think that's really smart. My dad is very, very good when it comes to the LA freeway system. In fact, one of his good friends has nicknamed him the freeway savant. Yes, and I laugh at that, but it's probably true. But again, the freeway is can have a lot of accidents, although in the article, it's a lot of accidents can also occur at intersections, and one of my daughters was in a car accident where she went through a yellow and she met up with a girl who did not have a driver's license in the intersection, and so my daughter's car was totaled, and the other girl's car was totaled. The police said that the other girl was at fault because she didn't have a driver's license while she was driving, but I told my daughter at that point, don't go through any more yellow lights. Break at the intersection and wait. You know, it's funny. You mentioned this story because my daughter, who's almost 15, she caught me running a yellow light not that long ago, and she told me not to do it anymore. And she learned from you, she quoted you saying grandpa Andy said not to drive through yellow lights. You can get in a car accident, and you must have, I wonder if you had told her that story, I might have anyways, ever since she told me that, I've been really careful not to go through any yellows. That's correct, because you're going to be her example, absolutely. And you mentioned looking over your shoulder, oftentimes a motorcycle will come out of nowhere right on my side. It's important to see them, because if you bump the motorcycle, he and the motorcycle will go flying, and you're going to inflict major damage on that individual and on their property. So I tell my daughter, because I'm trying to get her thinking about driving and driving safely, I tell her to think about three things when changing a lane. I tell her, you want to use your blinker First, give it more time than you think, so that people can predict what you're going to do. Look over your shoulder so you're checking your blind spot, and then carefully change lanes Absolutely you don't want to, like do it at the last second, because even though you're moving into, let's say, from the third lane to the second lane, there could be somebody from the first lane moving into the second lane, and you can meet up in the middle. So you want to be careful that you don't meet up with that other person changing lanes towards you. Now I'm curious, because there's been so much change with technology when it comes to driving, and you started driving before there was technology advancements, do you feel like it's made people better drivers? Why and why not? Well, I like the idea, for example, when you put your indicator on that there's a little light flashing in the side view mirrors that there's a car nearby. I also noticed that when I'm starting to change lane, there's a little force which kind of protects me from moving into that lane because there's a car nearby. So those are all good things to have. The GPS is good as well, because if I know that I'm going to get off the freeway in so many miles, or if there's police activity, or there's that accident in front of me, I can be aware of it. I think it's also important, besides the technologies, that you look ahead instead of just a car in front of you, because sometimes you can see a bunch of red lights in the freeways ahead of you, and you know it's time to slow down, because everybody else is slowing down. Absolutely. That's good advice, not just looking straight in front of you, looking further in the distance, correct? Now, what about and I guess my question is, you know, I think about it in two ways. I think there's good technological advancements that have been helpful, but I also think that people tend to over rely on GPS. My husband, for example, he's not from Los Angeles. He didn't grow up knowing the freeways on his own, and he really relies on GPS. And I do think it's helpful to also understand the big picture where you're going ahead of time without over relying on our on our GPS systems. I like going to downtown Los Angeles to either concerts or games. I know how to get on the freeway to come back home, because it's a little complicated by downtown LA you just have to remember that every time so you have nowhere to get on the freeway and how to get home. So the GPS may direct you one way, but may put you in communities or areas that you're not familiar with and make you feel uncomfortable. I think you just have to remember it yourself. That's good advice. You're definitely my role model when it comes to understanding and knowing the La La freeways. Thank you. Do you have any thoughts when it comes to seat belts? I know the rules have become stricter as time has gone on. Do you think that's been a benefit for society? A lot of car companies have simulated road crashes with dummies, and they can check on the force. So if you're not wearing a safety belt, you're going to hit the dashboard in front of you, or you're going to fly out the window, and if your body hits the pavement, it's not going to win, it's going to lose. So it's important to wear a safety belt. Now, there's also the airbags, which can protect you as well. All these safety fixtures, I think, are essential to help protect your body in the unfortunate situation that you do get in a car accident, yeah, and I actually like that. The. Car will beep at you until you put your seatbelt on, and that's a good a good safety addition. Nobody's perfect. Everybody may forget because they're occupied with something else when they start their car. So now question for you, do you as a driver, have any pet peeves that you notice other drivers doing that we haven't talked about yet? Well, we talked about tailgating. I don't like getting cut off, but again, I don't try not to have road rage as a result of that, so I just have to let it happen and just back off away from a poor driver. So pet peeve would be tailgating, not that I do it, but I look at my rear view mirror and I see people tailgating me, and I don't appreciate it, but I just have to be careful of that person. What about for parents that may be teaching their teenager how to drive soon? Do you have any advice for teenage drivers? Specifically, I think a lot of time on the road with your child would be essential, and you have to take them in different situations. I took you Decker Canyon. That was a big mistake on my part, it was, like, terrible, but we got through it, and I did not teach my younger two daughters to over Decker. Hey, wait, describe for everybody listening, what is Decker Canyon like? Oh, man, it's very curvy. It's, it's bad. It's like, insane. It's not, it's not something, yeah, I think you've ever been on Decker Canyon since that time. Oh, it's uphill, tight, twisted turns. It's hard to see what's around the corner from you, but I like your motivation behind it. You wanted to make sure I was the best driver I could be. You wanted to give me all the experience possible before I was on my own. Absolutely I don't want to visit you in the hospital. I want you to come home, even to this day, my wife and I are very happy when you guys drive and come back home safely. I'd say another piece of advice for teenage drivers is to make sure that they're not out too late. The later you're on the road, you put your self at risk of being around other risky drivers. Well, that's an interesting point, because the bars and restaurants will stop serving alcohol around one in the morning, so oftentimes after midnight, all those people who've been drinking a lot in the restaurants and bars are now on the road, and those people, you have a substantial alcohol level or load in their system. I have to think about my curfew for my kids, but there will be one fair enough. I'm happy with that. So this has been great. I really appreciated this conversation. I think, you know, I have to say for us as pediatricians, we see a lot of illness, but a lot of the sadder stories that we deal with have to do with car accidents. Yes, I just thought it would be helpful for people listening. Maybe there's something that we said that may make you think twice about texting. May make you consider doing something that's a little bit safer than maybe you were previously doing. And so that was my motivation behind having this conversation. Pediatricians emphasize preventive care, so nutrition is preventive, exercise, immunizations, but also safety prevention. And then we started off the conversation stating that car accidents are the number one safety problem. I can spout all day long about rattlesnake bite or spider bites, but that's not going to cause mortality. It's more likely to be a car accident. It's true. We talk a lot about safety as pediatricians, and there's a lot that I don't worry about as a mom as much as other moms that I meet, but something that I do honestly worry about is car safety. So so thank you for bringing that article to me. Thank you for talking about it with the audience, and I hope someday you'll come back on the podcast if I'm invited, sure. Thank you so thanks for coming. This is my dad, Dr Andrew Matthew, the best driver I know, the best pediatrician, the best dad. And feel really, really lucky to work with you. You're very kind. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of your child is normal. Also, if you could take a moment and leave a five star review, wherever it is you listen to podcasts, I would greatly appreciate it. It really makes a difference to help this podcast grow. You can also follow me on Instagram at ask dr, Jessica.