Ten most dangerous foods to eat while driving

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Posted on Thu, Aug. 29, 2002 By LISA GUTIERREZ Kansas City Star

Eat or drink as you're driving? Chew on this:

That uncovered cup of coffee in your cup holder could kill you. Or at least your bumper.

So could all that other road food. Ooey, gooey chocolate. Jelly and cream-filled doughnuts. Chili. Fried chicken. Tacos. And barbecued foods.

Hagerty Classic Insurance in Traverse City, Mich., has rated foods commonly eaten behind the wheel and issued a "Ten Most Dangerous Foods to Eat While Driving" hit list.

With state after state banning cell phone calls while driving, other distractions like eating, putting on makeup and yelling at the kids escape much discussion, said company president McKeel Hagerty.

"We kind of touched a nerve that people didn't really want to look at," he said.

As many as 69 percent of motorists enjoy meals on wheels by some survey accounts, a trend that fast-food restaurants and convenience stores have duly noted.

Witness the growing number of meals and snacks designed to be eaten easily with one hand. (Could there be any other reason for French toast sticks at Burger King?)

Taco Bell has improved the "portability" of its tacos with thicker shredded cheese and shell -- easier now to leave at least one hand on the wheel or stick shift. (Hagerty found that the odds of a food-related accident can double if you're trying to eat and shift at the same time.)

Earlier this spring 7-Eleven introduced Go-Go Taquitos, deep-fried tortillas stuffed with spicy fillings and packaged in a paper sleeve. It took the company more than a year to develop a portable version of notoriously messy Mexican food.

When the chain test-marketed its new Candy Gulp, a resealable plastic cup of gummy candies, customers asked that the cup be made a little wider at the top so it would stay in cup holders. In some markets, the new on-the-go sweet outsold even chocolate candy.

The National Restaurant Association estimates that one-third of consumers age 18 to 24 and one-fourth of people 25 to 34 eat more frequently in their cars now than two years ago.

Other surveys suggest that more than 10 percent of all meals in America are eaten in the car, and more than half of all fast food is sold in the drive-through lane.

The government doesn't keep statistics on how dangerous eating on the run really is. But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 25 percent of all automobile accidents that cause injury or fatalities are caused by distracted drivers.

Local dashboard diner Todd Mick says he's never had even a close call. Every morning on his 30-minute commute from Platte City to Missouri Western State College in St. Joseph, Mick enjoys a travel mug full of coffee.

And it's always covered. "Maybe they should have surveyed Missourians...we put lids on our coffee," said Mick, a business professor at the college.

Eat a concrete ice cream treat from Sheridan's Frozen Custard while driving? No problem for Mick.

Since he's left-handed, he holds the cup in his right hand and the spoon in his left, then props his knee and elbow against the steering wheel. "I got it down," he said. "As long as the air bag doesn't go off."

This he explained from his cell phone while driving down the highway at 65 mph and munching on carrot sticks.

Could it be that Kansas Citians are champion multitaskers?

A quick check of local police turned up little evidence that food is a major contributor to fender benders here, unless McKeel Hagerty is right: "People are embarrassed to say, `I was eating a hamburger and that's when I hit the wall.' "

Andy Norris, a computer programmer who lives in Baldwin City, Kan., grabs at least a drink every time he's going to travel in his Chevy Venture minivan for more than 30 minutes. His favorite libation is the 44-ounce cherry vanilla Coke from Sonic Drive-In, which he sometimes holds in his lap instead of the cup holder.

That's a risky maneuver in winter. Bulky coats put him closer to the steering wheel, which can catch the lid and tip the cup over. So he either pushes the seat back or puts the drink in the cup holder.

He didn't care that the Hagerty survey called soft drinks a deadly distraction. "I'm not going to give up anything," he said. "This is America."

If the discussion is about dangers on the road, what about all those people who turn and change lanes without signaling, said Norris, a religious blinker. He won't order tacos or fried chicken in the drive-thru, so he can leave his left hand free to use the turn signal.

"I break that rule when I eat chicken strips," he admitted. "I've got the ranch dressing in the left hand and the chicken strips in my right. But I can still hit the turn signal with my left."

The same people who have problems eating while driving are the same ones who can't talk on the cell phone and drive at the same time, Norris said. "And they shouldn't even be talking and walking at the same time," he said. "It's all based on the individual person and how much aptitude they have."

Hagerty Insurance is not suggesting that people put down their Big Gulps and step away from the car. "Obviously we're not advocating anything other than common sense," said McKeel Hagerty, who eats behind the wheel on occasion.

But since issuing the list a few weeks ago, he's gotten so much positive feedback from law enforcement officials across the country that he plans to issue an updated list next year.

Better put yogurt at the top.

Patti Combs of Shawnee eats breakfast in her car most mornings on her way to work at Fleishman-Hillard Inc. near Crown Center. Sometimes it's a protein bar she's frozen at home to keep it from breaking in half and falling under the seat when she unwraps it.

She eats dinner in the car sometimes, too, though she was way too embarrassed to admit her skill at eating a Taco Bell bean burrito while driving.

So we'll do it for her.

A run-in with a flying yogurt container at the car wash recently taught her that the car doesn't even have to be moving, much, for food to be a distraction.

After an early morning at the gym, she stopped at a convenience store to get gas and a free car wash on her way to work. She had breakfast with her: a cup of coffee and a container of yogurt. "I thought well, I can multitask. I'm a woman of 2002," she said.

As she pulled her Saturn into the car wash, she had her yogurt all ready to go, foil peeled back, and coffee in the cup holder. The water started coming -- "I'm eating away, I'm so cool" -- when she noticed her door was ajar.

Forgetting about her automatic seat belt, she opened the door just a tad. The seat belt grabbed the yogurt container and flung it across the car. As she lunged for it, trying to close the door at the same time, she knocked the coffee over.

"So the inside of my car is dripping with hot coffee and globs of yogurt and fruit," she said. "The outside of my car is spotless, though. So much for multitasking."



-- Anonymous, August 29, 2002


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