WEBVTT
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Welcome to another In Wheel Time podcast.
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I moved my microphone and I forgot where I put it.
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You got the award-winning In Wheel Time car talk show just ahead, we visit with our favorite auto info insider, divya Sangam or Sangram on reckless driving.
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It's always a good way to start off the morning.
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I'll give you my thoughts on driving the 2025 Ford F-150.
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Jeff has the motor minute.
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It's all coming up on this segment of the In Wheel Time Car Talk Show.
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Howdy along with Mike out of this world, mars down there.
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We always need more Jeff Zekin here.
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You don't even know where I am, mr Forgetful.
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Yeah, and that's what you're going to go with.
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I'm me and you're not.
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Thank goodness.
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Isn't that the truth?
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Div you ready.
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Here she's coming right now.
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She's on her way.
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She's parking the car.
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Right now she's parking the car, so I'm not the only one that's late.
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We look like we scared her, oh no.
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Let's just zoom in right now.
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Shall we Zoom her?
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There she is, ladies, and gentlemen, Divya Sangam.
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Hi, hi, hi guys, how are you all doing?
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Well, we're doing good, I'm doing good.
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Were you kind of scrambling this morning trying to get to us?
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A little bit, yes.
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Because you're never late, and you were a minute late this morning, that's okay, we scramble every Saturday morning, so don't worry about it.
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We scramble eggs, eggs.
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Well, no, Well, I got late.
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I was scrambling because I was scrambling eggs this morning and I woke up a few minutes late.
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So that's why Feeding the family is important.
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There you go.
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Absolutely Well.
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It's good to see you.
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How have you been?
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I've been good.
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How about you guys?
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Very well.
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Thank you, divya.
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By the way is with LendingTree Value Penguin and we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.
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It's always fun to talk to her.
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It is, it's always good.
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I know that you of every country that's being tariffed right now Go.
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I wouldn't know exactly where we are with the tariffs because they keep changing.
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But I will say this A lot of people are worried that auto insurance rates are going to go up because of tariffs, and what I want to say to them is hold your horses.
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It's probably not going to be as bad as we imagine.
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The situation is constantly in flux.
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You know they're striking deals all the time and, more importantly, you know tariffs is just one small part of the calculation that goes into figuring out how much your rates are going to increase.
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Climate change and weather disasters are probably going to have an even bigger impact.
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Or you know, reckless driving or just unsafe driving is probably going to have a far bigger impact than tariffs.
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Yes, tariffs are going to affect, you know, the cost of repairing cars, because you know the cost of importing spare parts is going up, but it's a piece of a larger equation.
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Well, let me just say this you know we hear and see television commercials they're bombarded by we'll save you at least $300 a year on your car insurance.
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Well, I got ticked off at Allstate, who I have been with for decades, Because it's such a pain to have to go and change.
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And then I only changed once in my life and I changed to state farm and I was with state farm for one month and they dropped me.
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Oh, oh gosh, I'm sorry to hear that yeah, it was awful because I have a perfectly clean driving record no accidents, knock on wood, nothing.
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But whatever reason, and they couldn't tell me and I was ticked.
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Needless to say, I was mad.
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So I went back to Allstate.
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Well, this time my Allstate insurance agent sold his agency to somebody that I never knew State Farm.
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To another agent and never once did I get a phone call or email.
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Welcome to our new agency.
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My name is so-and-so.
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Let us know if you have any questions.
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We're reviewing your policy.
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We'll be back with you soon.
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Nothing, I got nothing.
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I thought, okay, I can play this game.
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So I thought I'm going to start shopping for car insurance and you can go on a website and then, all of a sudden, every insurance agent in the entire United States now has your email.
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It's funny how that works.
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Yeah, unfortunately, that's the way a lot of these sites are set up.
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The upside of getting called by agents is then they're kind of at your mercy, so you can ask them whatever questions you want.
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They're eager to close the sale, so it's just a really good way to compare us in shop.
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Well, I will tell you that I kept waiting and waiting and, of course, hey, we'll call us.
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No, no, you do the work.
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I got one phone call from a young man with a farmer's insurance agent out of College Station, texas, which is about what?
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90 miles from here, or so 99, yeah, yeah and really a nice guy and let me get your information, mr Armstrong.
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So I gave him all my information in the car and all of that.
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I saved myself $500 when I bundled it thank you with my homeowners, which is a renter's insurance policy and my car insurance and my car insurance.
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I don't have you know big expensive deductions with you know collision and all that stuff.
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I got a you know 25-year-old car and it's my baby and I don't drive it very often.
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I told him that he says, okay, well, we got this, this, this, this, this and bam, $500 a year.
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Then not once did I get a phone call.
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So I wound up having to call the Allstate insurance agent and say Go fly a kite.
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Pretty much, yeah, go fly a kite.
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Oh well, what can we do to get you back?
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You didn't even give us a chance.
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No, you had a chance for six months to call me and say, hey, I'm me and you're you and that kind of thing, nothing.
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So goodbye, allstate, see you later and the insurance agent.
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There you go.
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So that was that.
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Maybe Divya can insure us.
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Yeah, well, maybe not.
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I'm sorry, I don't have an insurance license.
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I'm purely focused on the research side and all the interesting stats.
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So let's talk about what you called us to tell us about reckless driving and what effect it has on everybody.
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So here's the thing you know, summer is upon us and usually when the summer season starts, you get to see all kinds of drivers on the road, because the days are longer.
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Everyone's out there driving and one of the consequences of having more people on the road is more accidents.
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And let's admit it, we've all seen that one driver on the road who's extremely reckless and your first thought is oh my god, is this person gonna die?
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Is he gonna crash?
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Um, and the statistics show that reckless driving is a problem.
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Um, you know, nearly 10 percent of all crashes that are fatal are attributed to reckless driving, and the problem is more pronounced in states where you there's bad weather or just roads are more challenging.
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So we're talking, you know Montana.
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We're talking, you know Nevada, arizona, colorado, some of these states that have mountains, you know very remote roads or just challenging weather conditions.
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When you drive recklessly in those conditions, you're probably going to crash.
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And you know, if there is a takeaway here, it's just keep your eyes peeled on the road.
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Even if you are the safest driver out there, you can't trust the other drivers on the road to be safe, and we really don't want this summer to be a miserable summer because someone got into a nasty crash.
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Well, there's that, and then, and then, I was really surprised by the fact that Montana, that is such a remote place.
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You know it's part of Canada, isn't it?
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I mean, it is A suburb.
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A suburb yeah, a suburb of Canada or maybe Alaska, but it's up there and it gets really cold up there.
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Not a whole lot of people live there and it topped the country in reckless driving fatalities Wow, by five times.
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Yeah, and that was surprising to us until we dug into it.
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You know states like Alaska, montana.
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Their roads can be quite remote and, like you rightly pointed out, the winter can be very brutal.
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So when you have a combination of bad weather, remote roads, if you get into a crash it might even take a little longer for emergency services to reach you, which might contribute to the rise in fatal accidents.
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And it's cold, so probably people also may be drinking more to stay warm.
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And so when you see, that in all of these, you get a scenario where people are driving recklessly because they think, ah, there aren't that many people on the road, I can get away with it.
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They get into a crash, conditions are bad, they're not getting emergency services getting there quickly, and all of these contribute to it.
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So if there really is a takeaway here, it's just don't drink and drive, don't text and drive and be wary of other drivers on the road.
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Well, the other interesting stat here, South Dakota and Washington.
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Are you talking about Washington State, not DC?
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Yeah, Washington State.
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Washington State.
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Well, so that's got some mountains in it, and South Dakota is kind of next to Wyoming and you're thinking that there aren't as many people there.
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I don't know, but they reported the fewest reckless driving fatalities.
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Yeah, I think South Dakota had zero in the five-year period we analyzed, and Washington also was very, very low.
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Maybe South Dakota is driving to the other states and getting in these wrecks.
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Driving to North Dakota, either that or a bad bison.
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Well, I heard this the other day from a friend of mine that says these careless drivers aren't driving their cars, they're aiming their cars.
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Matthew Broderick said that Okay, I'll go with that.
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Yeah, yeah.
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I mean that makes a lot of sense.
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You know, careless drivers are a menace.
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Yeah, they're aiming their cars, not driving them.
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Now here's something that I thought was really interesting the second and third most reckless driving states West Virginia and Colorado.
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My youngest daughter lives in Colorado, and we will assume that is because of the mountainous region of the United States.
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Yeah, that's a huge part of it.
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Well, I will tell you that I visited there summer before last.
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No, last summer.
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Was Colorado, in what other state?
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Second, second and third?
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Oh, second and third that Colorado.
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I went to Pikes Peak.
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Oh, second and third that Colorado.
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I went to Pikes Peak.
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I still.
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My knuckles have not yet really gotten back to the color that they're supposed to.
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I am still white, knuckling it up that damn Pikes Peak that I never thought in a million years that I would be that terrified.
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Oh my God, it has to be something with my age, I don't know Used to be.
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No, I mean, it's new to us.
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It was probably a new experience for you because you may not have driven on that road before, but you were terrified.
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Now imagine you're a local.
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You're driving down that road every day.
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You might get careless and that might contribute to it.
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Well, like the tourist buses that were passing me on a two-lane road, zigzagging up the mountain, passing me On a two-lane road, zigzagging up the mountain, passing me, I'm going.
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Are you kidding?
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The guy obviously drives it all the time and they're all going as they went by, exactly.
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I mean, I remember when going with my family up to the Shenandoah Valley so it's between Virginia and West Virginia and there were parts of you know the road that were very narrow and the stated speed limit was like 20 miles an hour.
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It's supposed to be a scenic byway so we were sticking to the speed limit.
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You know it was a manual car, so we were going on second gear and then we were scared to move up a gear and there were people zipping by us, going at 50 miles an hour and you know I was terrified, my heart was in my mouth.
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Yeah.
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So and you know I was terrified, my heart was in my mouth yeah, so definitely the mountainous roads and just the conditions overall contribute to an increase in reckless driving fatalities.
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There are reckless drivers in every state.
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I mean, I've seen them.
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I live in New Jersey.
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I have driven in many countries but I am terrified of driving in New Jersey.
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But just because it's you know, roads are better, wider, well lit-lit, you can probably escape a bad driver.
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But if you're up in a two-lane road up a mountain it's a lot harder.
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So you know reckless driving need to be careful on the roads, especially if you're living in a place where roads aren't well lit or they're mountainous, or you just have bad weather or maintained, yeah, and the results are reflective of that.
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Well, I will tell you that through my lifetime I have had multiple, multiple driving lessons.
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Oh, you know speeding ticket.
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Okay, I used to get those every once in a while.
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Then you take the driver safety course and one of the things in all of the driving safety courses is adjust your speed according to the weather.
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You got bright, blue skies, no big deal.
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Run the speed limit if traffic conditions permit, but if the weather is bad, it's on you.
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If you have a wreck because you're supposed to slow down, and that's the biggest thing of all.
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And I see it, we have a beltway here.
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The speed limit is 65 in a very urban area of Texas.
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Well, with Colorado, you would think.
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You know, is it an accident?
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Is it a post-dispensary visit or pre-dispensary visit?
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Well, there's that thought.
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Yeah, there is that thought.
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And Well, there's that thought.
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Yeah, there is that thought.
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And the other thing is great, big trucks, you know, doing over the speed limit.
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And here's the guy inside texting Yep, all the time, I see it all the time.
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Huge thing, reckless driving, yeah, and it's preventable.
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You can't prevent somebody else from being a reckless driver, but you can get out of the way most of the time, unless, of course, they're coming up behind you at 80 miles an hour and you're stuck in traffic.
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There's nothing you can do and they slam into the back of you.
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Then you call Jim Adler.
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Yeah, I was coming in at 10 this morning.
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I crossed over Beltway 8, still on 10.
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I got my cruise set on 78.
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I'm cruising with the traffic and I see him coming, a big black car coming.
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I thought it was police, it wasn't, it was somebody else and he went around me and went across three lanes in front of me.
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Then he came back across three lanes just working his way through traffic.
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Zigzagging.
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And I'm doing 78 in a 60, 65, whatever the speed limit is through there and this guy is just blowing by me.
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I mean, Hello, steve Woodard.
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Yeah, I was going to say the same thing Steve Woodard.
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Next time set up that radar.
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Steve Woodard is our state trooper, friend Set up that radar over there on I-10 between Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange in Houston.
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Mr Mars is ahead of this away Inside the beltway where it speeds up.
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Camp out in Mike's driveway, you'll get them.
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I will never understand drivers who zigzag across lanes thinking it's going to get them to their destination faster.
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There was actually a study done by the University of Michigan.
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Because they are in the big traffic thing for the feds they say changing lanes actually delays your trip.
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So if you're in a lane and say it's a three-lane traffic and you're in the middle lane and the left lane keeps kind of going ahead of you, keep going ahead of you, and then you get in that lane.
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You just backed up because that other lane is going to move too.
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So stay in your lane, don't be zigzagging, and you'll get there in time.
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And don't be preached to by somebody that is the biggest sinner of all when it comes to that right foot.
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He can plow that thing right down to the floor mat.
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Who's that?
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Me no, no, they say I'm an old man when I drive.
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Here's the guy that had his.
00:16:15.585 --> 00:16:15.946
what was it?
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A 69 or 70 Nova, 72.
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72 Nova with a big V8 motor in it?
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No, no, him speeding.
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No, no, he never did that?
00:16:25.307 --> 00:16:26.008
No, never did.
00:16:26.008 --> 00:16:26.649
You know he?
00:16:26.649 --> 00:16:27.549
He never did that, no, never did.
00:16:27.549 --> 00:16:29.251
He talks about his hair getting a little thin.
00:16:29.251 --> 00:16:30.613
That's because the air he's blowing so fast?
00:16:30.653 --> 00:16:32.615
Yeah, just blow it all off Blowing it off.
00:16:32.655 --> 00:16:34.162
Yeah, don't do it, divya.
00:16:34.162 --> 00:16:36.740
It's so good to see you, Great to talk to you, as always.
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The next thing on your agenda from the guys at In Wheel Time is trying to sort out the tariff situation, and I know that you're going to do a great job.
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It may take you until next year, but you're all in for that, I can tell.
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I'm definitely going to give you guys an update the moment we get a sense of how much insurance companies are raising rates.
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And that's going to be the biggest problem.
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You say insurance Because it's going to raise the price of the car and repairs to the car.
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Is that right?
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I mean insurance is just one part.
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I only speak about insurance because that's the one thing I'm obsessed with.
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But yes, I mean it's going to affect the entire car ownership process.