Driving with a hat on...

Countless times, I have attended the huge German ski show called Ispo, in Munich Germany. On most visits, I would arrive at the airport, jump in a taxi and check-in to my hotel where I'd refresh or rest a bit, before going to the trade fair. Since I had just arrived from America, I always was jet-lagged and tired and in a semi-conscious state which amplified whatever I heard in the first few hours following my arrival. It also always fell in February when the weather was bad, the roads slick and the cab driver complained about that guy cutting her off or this fellow driving too slow.

On several occasions, I heard a comment that always startled me: “Beware of folks that drive with their hats on, they're always bad drivers!” Was it part of the Munich cab driver community's conventional wisdom, I don't know, but that remark made me pay attention to anyone at the wheel with anything on from a fedora hat, a Stetson, a baseball cap, a knit hat or even wearing ski helmet and goggles (yeah, I've seen more and more of those!) The point of that blog and my personal findings is that there might be a lot of truth to these German cabbies' statements.

Drivers who keep their hat on are of the unpredictable kind and deserve a lot more attention from those of us that are bare-headed. My take is that headgear must hinder peripheral vision or trap weird thoughts that would normally vaporize into the atmosphere, instead of festering inside the brains and causing erratic behavior. Sure, you'll tell me that F-16 pilots or car racers wrap their head inside a helmet, but some of these people don't have too much in it to begin with. Keep this keen wisdom in mind next time you drive, and report your observations on this blog; together, we might discover some eye-opening truth!