I can't profess to be the best driver in the world (and won't), but I've written probably 2,000 news stories on people who have died in traffic accidents.

Seriously, since I was at the Oklahoma Daily in the early 1990s to the Hugo Daily News in the mid-1990s to koco.com, where I am now, I have typed up thousands of stories that start like this:

A man was killed when ...

Three people were killed and two others injured when ...

They're car wreck stories, and I always stop and think, even if subconsciously, about the affected family, how that crash has destroyed their world.

Then it's a story about somebody you know, maybe not too terribly closely, and that sympathy turns to empathy. That happened for me this week when a good man and his wife from Houston, by way of my hometown -- Henryetta, Okla., were killed in a head-on crash outside of Tyler, Texas. My sister-in-law's sister was critically hurt in the crash and will be in the hospital for months.

And, the deceased couple's two kids ... to me, it is impossible to step into their shoes unless you've been there, and I haven't. I cannot imagine much of anything worse. It's absolutely heartbreaking for their children and, really, for everybody who knew the couple.

Perhaps you could tell I was a bit off my normal game this week, if you're a regular reader. I posted some crap yesterday just to have something fresh on the site, wondering how I might approach this forthcoming topic with some level of objectivity, with a level of detachedness from this tragic crash because, really, I've thought about addressing this many times before.

Over the years, I have realized that I pretty much use a generalized driving guide for my own habits, particularly because -- as I noted before -- I'm not the best driver in the world, and I've written so many news stories about traffic deaths. These are a few things, based on all the stories I've written that I honestly believe, if followed, would save lives.

Car crashes are going to happen, and a lot of the time, one can't do a damned thing about them, at least in one vehicle or the other. Sometimes there's nothing anybody can do, such as when the bridge collapsed near Webbers Falls, Okla., in 2002.

What I have for you here isn't science. These are merely my observations and opinions, based upon only the stories I've written over the years. I absolutely follow them if at all possible because I know of my own imperfections as a driver, and I'm quite aware of everybody else's.

This is also not about stating the obvious. Yes, one should wear a seat belt. No s***. Yes, talking on a mobile phone is dangerous while driving, whether it's in your hand or on your ear. Anything that distracts the driver -- even a conversation with the passenger -- should be limited. Furthermore, driving drunk is just stupid beyond belief, but this post isn't about throwing stones at anybody.

No, these are patterns I've noticed from all the stories I've written. You might have others; if so, shoot me a comment or an e-mail.

1. Avoid the unprotected left turn. This means left turns into parking lots. This means U-turns. If there ain't an arrow, find another way to get to your destination unless traffic is really manageable (e.g., not in Dallas). Most every deadly intersection crash I've reported on over the years involves one car turning, and it's almost always left. I've touched on this topic before.

2. Avoid two-lane highways. First, the vast majority of fatality wrecks I have written about have happened on small, generally low-traffic highways. There is so little room for error when you have one car heading in one direction right next to another car moving in the other, mixed in with somebody trying to pass, it really is advisable -- unless you live in the country or are explicitly going for a scenic drive -- to stick with interstates and large highways.

3. Avoid driving between 11 p.m. and 8 a.m. if at all possible. This is prime-time for drunks and sleepy drivers, so go get a motel room or wait until the next day to head out. Remember when Mom said nothin' good happens after 11 or midnight or whenever? Well, she was right. In my experience, the vast majority of fatal wrecks happen in this time period or at dawn, the result of exhausted drivers mostly, I'd suppose, as opposed to drunks exclusively.

A quick aside about drunk drivers. They don't typically take Main Street or the interstate. They take the backroads and the state highways. Now, the really experienced, emboldened drunk drivers will take the interstate, but I have a tip for you.

You are absolutely encouraged to call 911 to report suspected drunk drivers. Get their license plate number and dial 911. I know this means you'd need to use a mobile phone while driving if you're by yourself, but I honestly believe it's a responsibility to rat 'em out.

4. Don't drive in weather. My brother Charles, who followed the couple who was killed and his sister-in-law out of town from Henryetta on Monday, called me at a truck-stop in Vinita on his way down from St. Louis to ask me when the heavy rain was going to end.

This was an extremely wise thing to do on two counts -- a) stopping for 20 minutes instead of driving in heavy weather and b) calling to get some direction as to what the weather is going to do and where it's happening.

The biggest problem about driving in severe weather, aside from standing water, hail and tornadoes, is that most drivers either navigate too quickly or too slowly in it. It is always best to just wait until it clears, if you can.

I can't tell you how many times I've written, "Police said weather might have played a role in the crash."

5. Never drive behind any vehicle with a load, a camper or trailer. True story out of Grand Prairie, Texas, a few years back had a couple about to get married driving down I-20 following one of those trucks with pipes on the back of it. A pipe came loose, crashed through the window and killed the driver.

Last week, somebody was killed when a windboard of some sort came through a camper into another vehicle.

On July 4, 1998, I literally cheated death when I swerved to miss a camper that had flown off the truck in front of me. Some woman reached back into a cooler, and the camper came flying off. I had no choice but to miss this 300-pound or more projectile. It absolutely would have killed me on the spot.

Bottom line. Don't follow people closely, and never follow anybody whose vehicle has anything that could become loose or detached.

6. Don't swerve. After all that, I say not to swerve? Well, the great Hunter S. Thompson was renown for saying that it wasn't the hittin' that would kill you, it was the swervin'.

Depends on what you hit. However, if a dog or a cat runs out into the street, you should never, ever, ever swerve to miss it if you're going at a speed that could cause your swerve to result in a significant accident.

You hit the animal. Sorry. It's way better than taking out a family of seven when your car goes flying across the median.

This one is hard to do, but if you're going the appropriate speed and can see far enough ahead of you, this shouldn't be an issue. The other day, I saw a car almost lose it on I-35 when it swerved to miss a piece of rubber that had come off a tractor-trailer.

That piece of rubber wasn't going to hurt anybody, but that swerve could have killed us all.

7. Have your tires rotated every 6,000 miles. If you're not driving on good tires, properly inflated, properly rotated, you're driving a death machine. Really. I can't stress this one enough.

The other day, this poor motorcyclist from California was killed in Oklahoma City when a woman in a Chevy Blazer lost control on I-40, came across the median and hit him. I commented to our chief photographer, who had just noted how tragic this was, and said, "I bet she had a blowout."

Yep.

There is no excuse for driving on worn tires. The ex-husband of the current wife of a buddy of mine used to take pride in saving money by driving on cheap-ass discount tires. It's almost as foolish as driving drunk, and it's almost as preventable.

Hibdon Discount Tires here in Norman rotates those tires for free, whether you bought them there or not, just like Discount Tires did for me in Dallas. It is a community service, really, if you asked me, that those folks do, beyond the marketing benefit they receive from consumers who eventually buy their tires.

Some folks can't afford new tires or even good ones, and I merely hope I'm not on the highway with them when their back piece of rubber causes them to skid into oncoming traffic at 70 mph.

People forget that driving isn't a right. It's a privilege, and for all the headaches and stress a mere fender-bender causes everybody involved, I'm not so sure stiffer penalties aren't warranted in those cases, even a little jail time, in hopes of enforcing and encouraging a condition more hospitable to defensive driving.

I've been in four wrecks in my life, which I suspect is more than average. The first was when I was 16, and my buddy Jerm flipped a car on 9th Street in Henryetta right in front of Dr. Sellers' house. We got out of the old beater and chuckled because neither of us was hurt badly. Besides, I think the car had belonged to his brother.

The second was when I was 23 in Paris, Texas, and it was a mere fender-bender, which frankly should have resulted in both of us getting a hefty ticket for just stupid driving.

The third was a fender-bender in Dallas when a 22-year-old chick, late to wedding rehearsal, ran a red light at Lemmon and 75, slamming into the front of my 2001 Mitsubishi Galant.

The fourth was just two weeks later, in Highland Park, days after my dad had died (so I was in a fog) and the day after I got the car back from the shop. I was turning left from a parking lot onto Preston Road, and going about 10 mph, I touched this pregnant woman's SUV. It tipped over, and she started bleeding, and I thought, "Holy mother of Mary, I've killed this woman's unborn babies."

Truth is, she was fine, and the babies were fine. But it should scare the heck out of any SUV driver that their vehicle tips over so easy. On the other hand, being able to see over everybody is actually quite the benefit, so there's some give and take there.

Bottom line: I'm not a perfect driver by any means. But, I'm here to tell you. You don't want to be in a fatality wreck, nor do you want to cause it, nor do you want to be close to somebody who was in it. I'm not saying this to state the obvious but to state a point based on my general observation that the majority of people must really believe this sort of tragedy could never happen to them because they drive like idiots.

Here's what's even scarier. If you have never been in a serious wreck or known somebody who has been in one, you're probably due just by the law of probability. Just imagine how you'd feel if that was your parent. Or your brother. Or your child.

It's devastating for them, and there are so many little things each of us can do to prevent it. They don't even cost money. They cost only a bit of time and thoughtfulness.