Follow Mark Kennedy at @TFPCOLUMNIST

I recently witnessed a car accident. I heard the wreck happening before I saw it -- a mad squeal of tires followed by a sickening metallic smack.

As I watched, a car in a turning lane was rear-ended. The impact sent the lead car spinning across traffic, throwing off shards of red glass and Twizzler-size lengths of plastic trim.

I don't know what caused the wreck, but it seems possible that inattentiveness was responsible. (No one was seriously hurt.)

It reminded me of a conversation that I had a few days ago with a man who has driven more than 5 million accident-free miles -- more miles than most Chattanoogans will drive in five lifetimes.

Charlie Millican, 61, went to work washing trucks for UPS in 1965. He was 18 years old. For the last 36 years, the baby-faced Mr. Millican, of Flintstone, Ga., has been driving a big UPS truck.

Early every weekday morning, he climbs into his tractor-trailer rig and drives from Chattanooga to the UPS hub in Ashburn, Ga. It's 570 miles round-trip, but Mr. Millican almost always makes it home in time for supper.

"People talk about how far it is to Orlando (Fla.)," he said. "Well, I do the same as driving to Orlando five days a week.

If experience is the best teacher, Charlie Millican should be an expert on defensive driving. He's driven the equivalent of 21 trips to the moon without putting a scratch on his UPS truck.

I asked him to come by the newsroom one day to share his driving secrets.

Here are Mr. Millcan's suggestions:

* Drivers, keep your eyes moving.

"Don't stare and don't daydream," Mr. Millican said. "Have you ever watched a kid playing a video game? You know how hard they concentrate? I treat driving like a video game. It's intense."

* Put away your cell phone and limit other distractions.

"It's not so much the talking," he said. "It's the texting and dialing that create problems.

"Don't text. Don't fiddle with the radio. Don't reach down to pick something off the floor."

* Observe the rule of "four one-thousands."

"Pick out a point in the distance," Mr. Millican said. "When the car in front of you passes that point, count: 'One-thousand one, one-thousand two ...' Give yourself four seconds of reaction time."

* Steer clear of young, female drivers.

"The fastest drivers, by far, are young girls. I don't know why, but it's true," he said.

* Control anger.

"The best thing you can do is take your time and not get aggravated with people," Mr. Millican said.

* Never, under any circumstances, drive beside (or behind) a tractor-trailer truck for an extended period.

"There's a huge turnover in trucking," Mr. Millican said. "You never know if the driver of that 80,000-pound tractor trailer next to you just got out of driving school last week. You're at his mercy."

* Stay alert.

"It usually takes two people not paying attention to have an accident," he said.

* Wear your seat belt, and don't drink alcohol and drive.

Mr. Millican said the single biggest change in driving habits in his career is the change in attitudes on alcohol.

"Years ago, every other person driving a truck on a Friday afternoon had a drink in a paper sack," he said. "You just don't see that anymore."