My wife enjoys BBC radio shows on CD and she often listens to them in the car. She finds them absorbing . . . maybe a little too absorbing. One day I was out in my 1906 Stanley Steamer. Suddenly flames start licking out from the sides. I pull over and am trying to put them out when I see a car coming. I realise it’s my wife and wave to her to stop. “Mavis, Mavis,” I shout.

But she doesn’t see me. Not only does she not notice me but she doesn’t even spot that there is a red car on fire by the side of the road! As she passes all I can see is her head bobbing to whatever she’s listening to. How distracted can you get that you do not see a 100-year-old red car on fire by the side of the road with your husband jumping up and down beside it?

It is an extreme example of how distracted we are as motorists. On The Tonight Show we randomly set up a camera on the corner of a Los Angeles street. The idea was to catch 10 cars on camera as they passed by. We asked the audience how many drivers of the 10 would be on the phone. They said two. The answer was seven.

Unlike the UK, it is legal in California to use a mobile phone in the car. But the law has changed to make it illegal for under 18s to do so unless it is for an emergency. Okay, please . . . to a teenager everything is an emergency.

Talking of teenagers, I was shocked to find that in driving lessons kids are now being taught to hold the steering wheel at the 20 to five position, not at 10 to two. Apparently it is to stop their arms from getting broken by the airbags when (not if) they are in an accident. It seems no longer are we being taught how to avoid an accident but how to survive one.

The other day I was driving my 1913 Mercer Raceabout down the freeway. It is considered one of the first sports cars. It is fast but only has mechanical rear brakes. It takes three times the stopping distance of a modern car but because it has no windshield and no radio and a steering column like a spear pointed at your heart, you pay complete attention to everything around you. Distraction spells death in a car like that.

Modern cars, with the exception of extreme sports cars like the Ariel Atom or the Rocket, are so boring with so many luxuries, no wonder the drivers get distracted.

It’s not just that cars are too cushy now. It’s our lifestyle too. Time, traffic and commitments mean we are always in a hurry. I have seen people distracted by some stupid stuff when behind the wheel; reading handheld computers, doing their hair. Usual stuff.

But the most ridiculous was on the 101 freeway in Los Angeles. I looked across at the woman next to me, who had her dress up over her head and was taking it off. For 20 seconds or so she would not have been able to see anything. The road was not too busy but there were other cars around and she was probably doing 50mph. I was gobsmacked. When she pulls alongside me, and by now I can see the top of her bra (but because she recognises me, figures I am not a perv), I mouth to her: “What are you doing?” She replies: “I am late for an audition.”

I went right home and apologised to my wife. No longer is she the most preoccupied driver in LA.