Look out for that...chocolate. Hagerty Classic Insurance of Traverse City, MI, has issued a list of the top 10 most dangerous foods we can eat while driving. When we pay more attention to our food than the road, we're setting ourselves up for a potential car crash. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration warns that eating is a greater distraction than using a hand-held phone. "Most car accidents are caused by drivers not paying attention," says Eric Bolton, a NHTSA spokesperson. It's not just eating while driving!
Here are the top 10 most dangerous foods to eat while driving:
10. Chocolate
Like greasy foods, chocolate coats the fingers as it melts against the warmth of your skin and leaves its mark anywhere you touch. As you try to clean it off the steering wheel, you're likely to end up swerving.
9. Soft Drinks
Not only are they subject to spills, but also the carbonated kind can fizz as you're drinking if you make sudden movements, and most of us remember cola fizz in the nose from childhood. It isn't any more pleasant now.
8. Jelly and Cream-Filled Donuts
Has anyone eaten a jelly donut without some of the center oozing out? Raspberry jelly can be difficult at best to remove from fabric.
7. Fried Chicken
This is another food that leaves you with greasy hands, which means constantly wiping them on something--even if it's your shirt. It also makes the steering wheel greasy.
6. Any Barbecued Food
The sauce may be great, but if you have to lick your fingers, the sauce will end up on whatever you touch.
5. Juicy Hamburgers
From the grease of the burger to ketchup and mustard, it could all end up on your hands, your clothes and the steering wheel.
4. Chili
The potential for drips and slops down the front of clothing is significant.
3. Tacos
This is a food that can disassemble itself without much help, leaving your car looking like a salad bar.
2. Hot Soups
Many people drink it like coffee and run the same risk of a hot, painful, messy spill.
1. Coffee It's hot.
It spills. And it always finds a way out of the cup.