S5E4: Peter – Truck Flipped Over & Hanging by Seatbelt (Transcript)

(sneak peek)

PETER: I got a phone message from my mother on
the voicemail was in a panic. She said that she’d found, ice flat ice and was
unable to gain any traction and she was off the side of the road

we were having a
light snow storm. I turned onto that road. that she was on

And just as I did

 It finally occurred to me that we were on a
sheet of a. And I had no control over the vehicle at all.

 . And As soon as the two right wheels on the
truck left the pavement, the truck immediately just flipped over on its roof. 

(intro music)

BHAVNEET: Welcome back to another episode of drive
with this podcast. I’m Bhavneet.

TARANJIT: And I’m Taranjit and again, we’re super
excited to have you ride with us as our drivers, take us on some adventure
drives around the world.

Today’s driver is
Peter a travel and map. Grew, and an owner of discovery map.

International
started his career as the commercial banker and moved to Switzerland to become
an investment banker. He has traveled to almost every major European city
Australia. Asia and south America before returning to the U S to Remont, where
he and his family lived now, shortly after he was presented with the
opportunity to take over discovery map international incorporated, a company
that emerges travel maps and franchise ownership.

He shared some behind
the scenes of what is like making a map and his personal driving experiences
around the world. Here’s Peter.

(transition music) 

BHAVNEET: welcome Peter to drive with those
podcasts. Thank you so much for joining us today.

PETER: Thank you very much. It’s great to be
here with

BHAVNEET: We’re excited to talk to you about your
driving experiences. Before we dive into your crazy driving stories. Let’s get
to know a little bit about your driving background. So tell us a little bit
about your driving career, where you’ve been and where you are occurring.

PETER: grew up in Albany, New York, which is in
the north part of the country, the U S and when I was 16. I got my license. So
I’ve been driving, I just turned 60. So I’ve been driving along. There’s snow
in the wintertime and Albany. So, one of my early experiences was realizing
that it was not fully connected with the road.

that was fun and
interesting. And I currently live in Vermont,

which is even a
little bit farther north.

TARANJIT: I know

you work for
discovery

maps if I remember
correctly.

PETER: That’s correct.

TARANJIT: could you

tell us a little
bit about that and how you got into.

PETER: sure. Yeah. What I didn’t mention when
you asked me about my driving career was that I’ve, I’ve lived in the states, ,
as a young person and now again, but I lived overseas in Switzerland and, in
the United Kingdom for a bunch of years. So, when I came home back in 2002. I
moved here to Vermont where I love it very much and, uh, had the opportunity to
buy a small business, which was at that time it was called resort maps.

 we have since acquired a competitor and
renamed the company discovering that it’s a franchise company. So we, , sell
franchises to folks around the country and, They sell advertising somewhat
unique printed media. It’s a, it’s a caricature drawn map that helps folks of
orient themselves.

in wayfind in
areas that are new to them. And sometimes even areas they know well. ,

TARANJIT: have you actually gone out and laid out
these maps?

PETER: Yes and no. So typically when we create
a new map, two of us from head office here in Vermont, visit the territory, one
person production department and those folks are graphic designers and then
another one of us who happens to be in, in that instance, a glorified driver. so
an often, because I I’m the president of the company, I often like to go to the
new territories. I get to drive my colleagues around. And and funny enough,
those, those trips are indeed adventures. because we have to do a lot of.

Let’s say nearly
legal maneuvers in order to be efficient

TARANJIT: Have you ever gotten caught by the
police when you had to do these nearly legal maneuvers.

PETER: happily until I don’t believe I’ve ever
gotten in any real trouble once or twice. We’ve had instances where we’ve been
asked by the police, what we were doing. Because sometimes we’re, basically
we’re taking photographs where we’re, , driving all around side streets. We’re,
know, looking at, know, various businesses.

And sometimes
those businesses might be near, let’s say a government installation, or we
might be using a drone to get certain types of photographs. Every once in a
while we catch the eye of law enforcement and they politely ask us what we’re
up to and we politely answer. And usually is no more than that.

BHAVNEET: I can see how that might seem

sketchy.

PETER: I do too. Yeah.

BHAVNEET: Where is the craziest place that you’ve
had. When you’re making a

map.

PETER: see, that’s a good question. Probably
Puerto Rico comes to mind. We’ve done a few maps down in Puerto Rico I I
certainly don’t want to blame it on the, the jurisdiction down there. I think
it had more to do with that particular trip. I went with my family and, both my
wife and daughter ill with a stomach bug while we were. there. So I had to do
the map.

on my own. That is
to say drive and note all the landmarks and so forth on my own. So I was, how
shall I say it? You know, I was, I was being risky. it made for a dice.

BHAVNEET: How would you describe the drivers
there? We did have a guest on season four recently who said that Puerto Rican
drivers are apparently worse than California drivers

PETER: I don’t know if I would qualify one is
better or worse, but I think that there are less, let’s say careful, less
worried about, fender benders or. whatever. Have You said they might seem a
little, aggressive or ambitious sometimes.

BHAVNEET: Have you ever been in a situation where
you were a passenger in a car and you’re like, This was

a bad idea.

PETER: I have to admit I’m not a very good
passenger generally, but it’s funny. You’ve triggered my memory now. was One
time I was at a meeting in Helsinki. Finland. And, I was late for my flight
home. So, the folks I was meeting with called me a taxi. I went down to the
front entrance of the building and got in this taxi.

And, , it just so
happened that the, I forget the actual name of the, there’s an organization
for, cooperation and security in Western Europe, in the U S and they were
having a meeting. So there were some heads of state flying in. Lots of senior
government officials from all over Western So the, the highway from from town
Helsinki to, to the airport was completely stopped. It was a parking lot, but but
my taxi driver, it was not going to be dissuaded beyond my flight on time. So
he hopped into the breakdown lane and he was doing, I would say at least 80
miles an hour in the breakdown lane.

And at that point
in time, I would’ve preferred Miss my flight then to continue the ride. But, he
got me there on time.

BHAVNEET: Wow. That’s crazy. I’ve seen people like
driving slowly down the shoulder or in the breakdown lane, like, like, oh, let
me get to the next exit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone going full speed
down.

PETER: does not that this was beyond the speed
limit all the way.

BHAVNEET: Well, you didn’t miss your

flight. What would
you say is one of your most craziest driving experience?

PETER: going back a few years, eight or 10
years, I was working in my office here in Vermont and was a Friday afternoon
and I came home, roundabout, the end of the day. I might’ve left a little bit
early. and I was, sitting in my living room with a, with a friend.

Also a franchisee
and, we were having a drink and I got a phone message from my mother she
didn’t, I didn’t speak to her. I just heard the message. And she had gone up to
pick up my younger daughter from daycare. she had with her, my older daughter
who at that time was only three or four years old.

And my mother on
the, on the voicemail was in a panic. She said that she had gone a certain
route and that she’d found, ice flat ice and was unable to gain any traction
and she was off the side of the road could I please come and help her? So of
course I, panicked a little bit as you do. I jumped in the truck. I had a
pickup truck at the time and I raced down the road in that general direction.
The road that she was on was, was a little bit higher than here from an
altitude perspective. and we were having a light snow storm. took me a few
miles to get to the road that she was on and I turned onto that road.

And just as I did,
I don’t know what in my mind triggered the thought, but I clicked my seatbelt.
I didn’t have my seatbelt on in those days. I had a big pickup truck and I
wasn’t that worried about that. But sure enough, I put it on and as we’re
driving up this road slowly gaining altitude, and it finally occurred to me
that we were on a sheet of a. And I had no control over the vehicle at all. My
friend who had written with me, he was on the phone with a mutual friend and he
was literally narrating to her a car accident and as I’m trying to control the
vehicle, he’s telling her step-by-step what’s happening.

slowly the front
end or the truck turned to the left, thankfully there were no other vehicles on
the. So We ended up doing a full 180 on a sheet of ice and switched over into
the left lane. And as soon as the two right wheels on the truck left the
pavement, the truck immediately just flipped over on its roof.

 so he and I are now hanging there from our
seatbelt harnesses, and he’s still talking on the telephone, narrating the
accident. so I, being the clever guy that I am, I immediately undid my harness
and fell smack on my head, on the roof of the truck, managed to hop out the
window and then eventually had to run up the street and made sure that my
daughter were okay, but a, it was a dicey few minutes.

That’s true.

TARANJIT: More than a few minutes. Sounds like it
was more

than that.

PETER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re right. The
whole thing unfolded kind of slowly both the accident. And then finally, ,
getting to my, to my mom and daughter, it’s

BHAVNEET: it’s one thing to be in that accent, but
then your friend is narrating it the whole time. It’s like, seems like an other
world laser it’s, like you’re watching yourself

TARANJIT: like.

PETER: kind of funny, but also of morbid at the
same time. know, I didn’t know how it was going to end in the end. Nobody was
injured. The truck was a little bit beat what? it was like you say, it was a
little bit out of body

BHAVNEET: What would you say is your second
craziest driving

experience?

PETER: this one, it involved driving, but it
wasn’t all about the driving years ago. When I lived in Zurich, Switzerland, I
went for a weekend with some friends down to go skiing in Vermont, which isn’t
that far. It’s about a four hour drive. And we drove down. And is there.

Mine is you have
to, you have to go there by train. They don’t allow vehicles in the, in the village.
as we got close, we were probably within 10 miles of town, the traffic had been
stopped by the police. So one of my friends walked up and asked, what’s the
problem? And police officer said, well, the mountain is.

And That was all
he said, so it was kind of strange, we waited as most of the other drivers, and
nobody turned around. Most people waited. until quite a while, but about an
hour or so later, they let us all pass. in, We go up this very narrow valley,
get out of the car, get on a train. You have to ride the last few miles by
train. and we went about our business. We checked into the end. We were staying
at, down, went out for dinner. And when we came out. there was this very
strange haze, and also you could feel in your teeth, you could feel some kind
of very, very fine grit. So sure enough, we heard on the radio shortly
thereafter that indeed the mountain had collapsed and about 8 million cubic
meters of rock had fallen into the valley on the road and on the training. So
we were, stuck. We couldn’t get out of Vermont for, for some period of time.
they had organized a helicopter to take folks out town. a big, Sikorsky,
helicopter seeding, 20 or more people gigantic thing. and know, took the train
home and that was a really interesting experience.

BHAVNEET: That that’s a really strange thing to
hear. Like the mountain is moving. I never thought that that could be a thing.

PETER: Exactly.

TARANJIT: Since you have been to so many different
places, how would you describe drivers in the different areas?

PETER: to be honest, there’s obviously
variation from place to place, but not as much. I think as one might imagine,
in Italy, the drivers are a little more chaotic than they are in Switzerland.
And I think that probably. The stereotypes, in Scandinavia they’re, they’re in
a hurry, but they’re all organized and doing the right thing. I would look at
it more locally, closer to home for me and think about how in

my experience,
which of course is limited. In some areas, folks tend to drive in the left lane
on a, on a highway. and of course in most places although it’s not. Published
or promulgated clearly, but most cases you’re supposed to pass left and stay.
Right? so. when people just ride in the left lane make it difficult to pass or
to move forward, I find that a challenge and, know, without shaming, anyone, a
group of people, a couple of new

England states in
particular seem to have that.

habit.

BHAVNEET: That’s really interesting. , what we’ve
noticed a lot is like when we went more north people would follow it more of
staying out of the left lane, lesser passing. Maybe we haven’t been to those
states. But it’s definitely not the case down here in Maryland.

TARANJIT: Maybe we just have it so worst here in

Maryland that up
there, I was like, oh, this

BHAVNEET: is

PETER: You’re right. It might be relatively
better.

That’s probably
exactly correct.

Yeah.

BHAVNEET: So now that we heard a little bit about
your crazy driving experiences, let’s get to know you as a driver. How would
you describe yourself as a driver? And would you say that your family and
friends would

agree with.

PETER: They like to think I’m a pretty good
driver. I draw. Can I say expeditiously, I drive kind of fast, but not crazy
fast. I don’t take any significant risks. There’s no need to, , I, and I try to
make sure I leave enough time for trips so that I’m never really rushing to me
to deadline when I do end up in that position, I get stressed.

So it’s, it’s no
fun. and try to move quickly and efficiently once upon a time, I would be an
impatient driver. And, not appreciate being behind someone or another, you
know, when you drive in Boston and everybody’s in a hurry, everybody’s in, I

lived there for a
time. but, but being here in Vermont, things are a little bit more relaxed and
you kind of learn to go with the flow and not get too excited. know, with.

friends and
family, and. I think, yes, I know my work colleagues when helping set up, I’m
kind of known as the one person in the office. who’s the most, let’s say,
willing to get the job done, I’ve I’ve actually made other people cars sick, by
some of my jerky turns and things like that. So I’m far from

TARANJIT: Oh, so you’re known as a car sick guy.

PETER: If we should put that on my phone one
day. I don’t know.

TARANJIT: What would you say is your

biggest driving
pet peeve?

PETER: think It would probably have to be a
lack of signaling, especially left signals. I can remember even back when I was
still in high school, my friends and I used to joke, one of them referred to it
as a complimentary left Brinker, After you’ve been sitting at the light and the
person’s been there and the light finally turns green.

They th they then
at the very last minute, turn their left blinker mean? It’s, it’s really not
helpful.

BHAVNEET: I agree. That’s definitely a huge
problem here, but I know exactly what you mean. The people at the lights. Even
after they started turning they’re like, okay, now put it on.

I’m already going
this way. Just in case you didn’t notice, have you ever experienced road rage?

PETER: Yes. yes, indeed. I have to admit I
mentioned briefly that I could inbox in I’ve been in Boston for five or six
years I found the driving. They’re very much kind of survival driving. You
know, people are very

aggressive and
sure enough, I fell into the trap. I was not a nice guy behind the wheel and on
more than one occasion. And then I think there were four or five times and all
in relatively short succession, I would get impatient with drivers know, I
don’t know what you know, toot the horn and of course, lots of other drivers
would do that to me as well. kind of seemed to be the thing to do around there.
And I had a few really interesting brushes as a result. One time we’re picking
a friend up from the airport and some someone following. , for miles and miles
and miles all through town, I do her five or six big guys in the vehicle, and
this was a single person following us. So we assumed he must be armed. And of
course that got our attention That makes us a little nervous. and then there
was one time I was traveling on, on the Southeast expressway in Boston, the main
north, south artery through town. And this was before the tunnel. I don’t know
if you remember the big dig, but they took the

expressway,

which is up on
stilts and they put it below ground level. So this was before that when the
road was still a PI and, I was driving for work. I was trying to turn right to
get off an exit. And this kind of small truck was trying to turn left to get
onto the expressway. every, everybody is fighting for every inch of territory.

and, and through
all kinds of, horns and gestures and everything, this guy and the truck was
getting really really angry with me. got so angry that he got out of the cab
and , started to come after

me. just At that
point, Karthik opened up and I darted I think I got away lucky then.

BHAVNEET: Oh, my God. I don’t think I’ve ever seen
anyone actually like get out of a car and go after someone. But we’ve heard
that Boston has a reputation for aggressive drivers. Surprisingly, when we went
there, we didn’t encounter any aggressive drivers except probably thing like
the. Day that we were there.

There was one
person behind us. It just started honking at us for no reason. We’re like,

ah, a Boston
driver.

PETER: Finally we see it.

TARANJIT: So going back to your first time driving
experiences, how would you describe that experience and what was the driving
test like for you?

PETER: Oh gosh. me, that’s a long time ago, but
I remember it. Well, I think I had to use my

uncle’s car the
family car wasn’t there. So I had to

use a car with
which I was completely unfamiliar and, I think it was

like the
directional signal or something broke as I

was taking my
test. That was certainly a little bit of a frustration. but the examiner was
super nice and really understanding and gracious enough to let me pass on my
first try. it wasn’t all

that bad,
interesting story about driver’s test So I told you I lived in Switzerland and
then I moved from Switzerland to London.

And when I was in
London, I didn’t have a local driver’s license. I think you can drive a year or
so in most countries before you need to get a local license. and. I dunno, I’d
been there four or five years and they wouldn’t

be some
governmental tit for tat I think the

UK doesn’t issue,
driver’s license to Americans Just by virtue of them having an American
license, which

they do in most
countries. If you have an operator’s license, generally another country will
say, okay, fine, you’ve got a license. You can have a license, but the UK
wouldn’t do that. because the us doesn’t do that for British drivers either.

think I was probably
45 years old at the time, and I’ve been driving illegally for years. I just
didn’t mind. it wasn’t a thing for me. And then one of my administrative
assistant said, you have to get a license and insisted that I for the test and

take the drug, the
practical I’m sorry, I got ahead of myself. I had a license in Switzerland, and
so I submitted that Swiss license to the UK, driving authorities, because you
can get a license in the UK, if you have a Swiss license. So I sent it into
them and waited a couple of weeks. And then finally came back in the mail. The
license came back with a note saying, we

see you got your
Swiss license because you have an American license, so we’re not going to
accept. So, so that’s why I just decided that, I’ll show these people. I just
won’t get a license. but as I say, eventually my my assistant, insisted that I
get one and I sat for the test and I was incredibly nervous, for a 45 year old
man who had been driving for, I don’t know how many 20 plus years, but it was
fine again, the examiner was a super nice guy and I took the tactic

of just talking to
him, not, not focusing on the driving, not focusing on anything else, but just
starting up a conversation. And sure enough, he passed me and a big problem.

TARANJIT: Yeah, just distract him.

BHAVNEET: I mean, I can understand that it’d be
more nerve wracking, cause you’ve already taken your test. You’ve been driving
for so many years and I was like, if I don’t

pass. So like,
what

does

that

PETER: That’s not going to look good at all.

TARANJIT: let’s talk a little bit about the future
of driving with the potential of self-driving cars, becoming a thing. What are
your thoughts on this? And is this something you be

comfortable with?

PETER: I’ve been thinking and talking about that
a little bit lately, My

view, and by the
way, my view is usually wrong about the future. So please discount it. My view
is that it’s probably far easier for, self-driving or automated vehicles to,
drive successful. if all

vehicles are
automated, I think it’s that human element that makes it so challenging to
program for. I may expect and frankly, hope that the next decade or two, we
will see, you know, autonomous

vehicles. I wonder
if there’ll be land based or maybe you might be too young to remember the
Jetsons, maybe we’ll all have our own personalized little flying cars instead.
Adding the third dimension might make accidents It’s likely, or maybe more
likely if they’re flying around who’s to say, could be the first step will be,
maybe only on highways, drive your car and then enter a highway and, you could
switch over to auto drive I just think in that

kind of constraint
environment, it might be a little bit easier for the program vehicle to be able
to avoid accidents. City streets are a much dicier proposition.

BHAVNEET: That’s a really interesting point. And I
think that’s actually a really good idea because then a lot of people are so
stressed from driving on the highways so that if they can just. Switched to
auto driving the minute they get on the

highway, then they
don’t have to worry about it.

PETER: Exactly. And you know, for long
distances you can maybe, I don’t know if it’d be smart to sit back and read a
magazine or something, but, once the concept is fully proven and safe, then
yeah. Those things can probably.

happen.

TARANJIT: Yeah. I also

agree that I don’t
think it would be a good idea to mix half human driven cars. Self-driving cars
on the road either have, like, I guess, you know how they have like express
lanes where you, or toll lanes where you can like go faster. If you pay, maybe
they’ll have like express lanes for

self-driving cars
to keep them

separate.

PETER: Yeah, that’s a good idea. Cause

yeah, cause like
you say mixing the two, it just, it just sounds.

dangerous.

BHAVNEET: Bonus question time. Are you

ready?

PETER: I hope so.

BHAVNEET: If you can make one, a new driving law,
what was it?

PETER: It’s funny. I have a mom who’s getting
up there in years and

of course I

love my mom very
much. Like we all do. but she’s of an

age right now
where she still drives, But I think it’s maybe not that safe. So, I think
perhaps, and I think in some jurisdictions, this is already true, but I think
perhaps. folks at a certain age might need to pass a driver’s test again. just
to confirm that they can still be safe on the open road. I hope my mom never
listens to this podcast.

BHAVNEET: Kylie telling her, please go retake your
tests.

TARANJIT: You’re actually not the first one to say
that we’ve had a couple people say that would be

their law, so
you’re not alone.

PETER: Yeah. You know, and it certainly no, uh,
no disparagement or no aspersion toward

older people. It’s
just a safety know, I really think that we all want to be safe on the roads.
And I think that would go a long way to, to further and safety.

TARANJIT: Do you have any final thoughts or any
tips that you would like to give other

drivers

out there?

PETER: Keep your eyes on the road. No texting.
Obviously you don’t drive impaired and don’t drive distracted. Everybody knows
that these days,

but

 it’s easier to talk about it than to actually
do it and do it all the time. I’m guilty. I hate to admit from time to time.
I’m a little distracted, but really we should all work hard to focus on one
thing at a time, especially lower.

Good.

BHAVNEET: Tips. I know everyone knows them, but
definitely important to actually follow

them.

PETER: thank

BHAVNEET: Well, thank you so much for coming on
before we let you go. Where can our listeners find you if they would like to

connect?

PETER: our website is discovery map.com. and So
that’s probably the best can find me

BHAVNEET: Well, thank you so much for coming on.

It was really fun
talking to you.

PETER: Likewise. Thank you both. That was
really fun. I appreciate it a lot.

 (transition music)

TARANJIT: Before we had Peter on as a guest, I
never really thought too much of what it takes to make a map or like that
someone actually has that as a job that. That’s a job. It never occurred to me
until he came on. Like, I, I mean, like, subconsciously, I feel like I knew,
but you know, it’s not something you think of, like, I’m going to be a map
maker,

BHAVNEET: Yeah. And his mouse are like, they’re
like more cartoonized. So they’re fancy maps. .

TARANJIT: Is this something that you could see
yourself doing? If

BHAVNEET: I could travel all the time? Why not?

TARANJIT: Personally? I think will be fun, like
you said, because you get the opportunity to travel and explore and everything.
But I think on the other hand, you have to be very careful driving and then you
have to also multi, you have to involve the tasks, which is the one thing most
people tell you not to do when you’re driving is to pay attention to the road
and not multitask.

And then in this
position, you’ve literally have.

BHAVNEET: And he’s had a couple, he’s had a couple
of close calls with police too, cause it’s like, what are you doing? Why are
you suspiciously driving? So slow

TARANJIT: driving in circles around me. Like Joey,
get pulled over for drunk deals.

BHAVNEET: Listen to episode one,

TARANJIT: throw it back to one.

but let us know on
Instagram at driving those podcasts, since we don’t know which platform you
looked so not. So the best place to messages is on Instagram at drive with us
podcast. But let us know if you could see yourself as a map creator, or if you
actually do this for a living and you have similar experiences to Peter, maybe
we could have you on the show next.

BHAVNEET: We hope you enjoy listening to Peter’s
driving stories. Be sure to stay tuned until the end of this episode, to hear a
sneak peek of next week’s episode with Terry McDougall from Chicago,

TARANJIT: she shared with us about the time that
she hit a guard rail. Head-on forgot to take off the parking brake and got her
car stuck in the median.

BHAVNEET: Thank you for tuning in this week. And
if you enjoyed this episode, you can help support the show by sharing it with
your friends or leaving us a review on pod chaser. It truly does help us get
discovered.

TARANJIT: Thanks for choosing to drive with us and
we’ll see you all next week.

(outro music)

 TERRY:  we stopped at this McDonald’s, in the middle of nowhere. , The car keys for the rental car. They actually had two sets of keys, wired together, it was so bulky and I like tucked part of it into the pocket. It was too big to fit the whole thing into the pocket, but I go into McDonald’s and go to the bathroom. And of course, , I don’t want to touch. So I, I flush the toilet with my foot. And when I did, when I lift my leg, it knocked the keys out of the pocket. This was the most industrial flushing toilet ever. It was just like, Wow. And. They were gone, the keys were gone