History Main / DriverFacesPassenger

* In ''Manga/GirlsLastTour'', when Yuuri gets on Chiito's nerves, the latter ends up driving into something while [[HypocriticalHumor lecturing Yuuri about how she needs to keep her eyes on the road]].

* In ''Film/TheSugarlandExpress'', the driver who picks up Lou Jean and Clovis thinks nothing of turning around and having a conversation with them, paying no attention to the road, and driving 25 mph on the open highway. This draws the attention of a patrolman and starts a series of disasters that form the backbone of the plot.
* Lampshaded in ''Film/StrangeBrew''. While driving, the [=McKenzie=] brothers discuss how people in movies never look at the road in driving scenes. During this conversation, Doug (who's driving) swivels all the way around in his seat to face Bob directly, causing them to almost crash.

* In ''Film/TwoFastTwoFurious'', Monica is riding with Brian when he turns to her and accelerates. Without looking at the road, he keeps driving and makes a perfect stop at an intersection.
-->'''Roman:''' "He did the stare-and-drive on you, didn't he? He got that from me."
* In ''Film/BringingUpBaby'', the female lead's reckless aside glances lead to a rear-end collision with a chicken-loaded truck.
* Subverted in ''Film/KnightAndDay''. Tom Cruise spends a scene in a car, on the highway, at night, and almost the entire time is looking at the female protagonist and explaining the plot of the movie to her. Once they're all caught up, they both lean back in their seats to get some sleep - whereupon the camera pans back to reveal the car they're in is on a larger tow rig that Cruise had been looking at earlier.
%%* Seann William Scott plays this one for laughs in ''Film/TheDukesOfHazzard'' movie. %%Example needs context to make sense on its own.
* Lloyd drives a limo in ''Film/DumbAndDumber'' while looking at his passenger (in the back seat) and telling her how dangerous drivers are today. At one point, we hear tires screeching, and shortly afterwards there's an explosion behind the car. Lloyd doesn't notice. Oh, and then he comments on all the bad drivers out there.
* In the 1928 comedy ''Film/{{Speedy}}'', Creator/HaroldLloyd plays a New York City cab driver who picks up none other than Creator/BabeRuth, and is so starstruck that he repeatedly turns around to chat with his hero... while driving through heavy Midtown traffic at a dizzyingly fast speed, much to Ruth's horror.

%%* In ''Film/{{Parasite|2019}}'' Ki-taek starts doing this as he gets comfortable in his role as driver. Mr. Park [[LampshadeHanging reprimands him]] to keep his eyes on the road. %%Example needs context to make sense on its own.

* ''Film/XXx'': When he drives Senator Hotchkiss's Corvette, Xander speaks into several cameras facing almost every direction ''except'' forwards. He's planning to dump the (stolen) car in a ravine for his livestream ''anyway'', but he's supposed to be a thrill-seeker, not a DeathSeeker.
* In ''Film/TheDescent'', in which [[spoiler:Sarah's husband holds her gaze for a few seconds too long, drifts into the oncoming lane and crashes into a car coming the other way.]]
* In ''Film/LastActionHero'', Jack Slater turns around completely in his seat so that he is almost lying in the back seat and drives the car entirely with his feet, all so he can fire his gun more accurately backwards. He claims that you just need a lot of practice in a low traffic area.

* In ''Film/MysteryTeam'', Leroy constantly turns around to yell at the protagonists, and Duncan constantly requests that he focuses on the road. This later turns out to be good advice.
* In ''Film/ShotCaller'', Jacob is driving tipsy with three passengers. He looks back to fist bump his friend, and crashes almost immediately. It only gets worse from there.
* In the movie version of ''Film/SleepwalkWithMe,'' Mike Birbiglia narrates most of the movie to the camera (which seems to be pointed at him from the passenger side corner of the windshield) while he drives around. He rarely looks at the road.
* In ''Film/FirstBlood'', Rambo climbs into the passenger seat of a military truck and holds the driver at knifepoint. When the driver stares at him Rambo tells him to look at the road and not at him (and for some reason he feels the need to spell out that not looking at the road causes accidents).
* In ''Film/{{Triangle}}'', the heroine is distracted by her son in the backseat, she turns around for several seconds without looking ahead and crashes into an oncoming truck.
* ''Film/TheBishopsWife'': Sylvester the cabbie gets so involved in talking to his back-seat passengers that he nearly drives their cab into a truck. Luckily Dudley is an angel, so he uses his angelic powers to save everyone else in the cab from death.
* In the fifties driving safety short ''Film/LastClearChance,'' one of the characters and his girlfriend [[TooDumbToLive turn around to wave at his brother while continuing to drive forward]]. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome occurs when they reach the train tracks.
* In ''Film/HorribleBosses'', [[Creator/JasonBateman Nick]] turns around while driving to slap [[Creator/JasonSudeikis Kurt]] several times, but [[Creator/CharlieDay Dale]], sitting next to Nick, holds the wheel and makes sure nothing bad happens.

* In ''Film/{{The Chase|1994}}'', Jack Hammond didn't have to turn to face his passenger...because she crawled into his lap and proceeded to have sex with him at 80 miles per hour with the police in hot pursuit.

* ''Series/AlteredCarbon''. At the start of "Man with My Face", Kovacs tries to simultaneously drive a FlyingCar to the hospital while treating and reassuring Ortega, who's bleeding out on the back seat. If it weren't for the police car's collision warning system he'd have gotten them both killed.
* ''Series/{{Cracker}}''. Whenever Fitz pulls one of his jerkass stunts on Detective Penhaligon, she likes to get back at him by driving extremely fast, while enjoying the expression on Fitz's face instead of looking at the road.
* ''Series/OurMissBrooks'': Walter Denton usually drives Miss Brooks to school. As a reckless sixteen-year-old driver, he, of course, looks at Miss Brooks instead of looking at the road. On one occasion, Miss Brooks had to grab the wheel and steer in order to prevent an accident.
%%* This caused Dick and Mary to crash once on ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun''. %%Example needs context to make sense on its own.
%%* RealLife: Ken and Curt, from the fourth season of ''Series/CanadasWorstDriver'', have this cited as among their worst problems. And Scott from Season Six was often called "Hollywood" as an insult by his nominator, who eventually cancelled Scott's insurance. In other words, Scott was kicked off the show by his own nominator--in the ''second episode'', no less! A distracted driving demonstration course has featured in most seasons from Two on. %%Example needs context to make sense on its own.
* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Dean will frequently take his eyes off the road to look at Sam during conversations in the car, with zero repercussions in the entire show. It's {{Lampshaded}} in Season 11 "Baby", after Sam tries to take the wheel while Dean eats a burrito wrap and Dean bats his hand away.
-->'''Sam:''' You're not even looking at the road!
* On ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' Gibbs drives without looking at the road while speeding and heading toward oncoming traffic, much to the terror of his team members. He's never had an accident. Ziva does this too, to a lesser extent.
* The ''Series/{{Friends}}'' episode "The One with Joey's Big Break" has a moment where, while Joey and Chandler are travelling to Las Vegas for the filming of Joey's movie, Joey mentions he's getting tired and that maybe Chandler should drive. Chandler tells him that they've only been driving for half an hour (and hadn't even left Manhattan), and that Joey hadn't looked at the road once. Joey says, "Don't worry, it's out there," looks at the road, swerves, and another car honks at him.

* In ''Series/WhiteCollar'', Peter has a tendency to lecture Neal while driving and take his eyes off the road, leading to several almost crashes.
* In ''Series/TheComeback,'', Lisa Kudrow's character Valerie Cherish is driving along, and then looks in the backseat to talk to her director, Jane, only to have Jane say, "Could you please keep your eyes on the road." Mostly because Jane was in the car during Valerie's previous foray into Driver Faces Passenger, which ended in a car wreck.
* In ''Series/HawaiiFive0'', Steve [=McGarrett=] looks at his passenger all the time while driving, and even once turning around to face Danno in the backseat.
* Numerous episodes in the early seasons of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' involve something bad happening the moment someone takes their eyes off the road. Lex first encounters Clark by driving into him.
* In one ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode, Jerry and Kramer are in an ambulance taking George to the hospital. The two paramedics get out to have a fight and afterwards, the remaining one is arguing with Jerry and Kramer as they yell at him for leaving the other man in the street. When he threatens to fight with ''them'', they respond by screaming at him to watch the road. He continues to scream...and we cut to black as we hear the sound of a crash. The closing credits play over the three of them in the hospital with bruises and neck braces.

* In the ''Series/BroadCity'' episode "Destination: Wedding," Kevin is supposed to be driving the taxi, but he spends most of the trip facing the backseat, talking about all their college friends who OD'd. Unsurprisingly, he ends up hitting another taxi, although no one is injured.

* A flashback in ''VideoGame/{{Anachronox}}'' shows the protagonist Sly Boots getting into a heated argument with his partner in the backseat while driving a FlyingCar, taking his eyes off the road just in time to get into a collision that costs the partner's life.

* From ''Film/TwoFastTwoFurious'': "He did the stare-and-drive on you, didn't he? He got that from me."

%%* Lloyd drives a limo like this in ''Film/DumbAndDumber'' while telling his passenger how dangerous drivers are today. At one point, we hear tires screeching, and shortly afterwards there's an explosion behind the car. Lloyd doesn't notice. Oh, and then he comments on all the bad drivers out there. %%Example needs context to make sense on its own.

[[folder:Films - Animated]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bro-hawkeye-bro_7402.jpg]]]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}'' Vol 4, issue #3: A member of the Tracksuit Draculas, while driving a car, spends more time talking to his kidnapped victim than looking at what's happening on the road. He fails to notice the pursuing Hawkeye in another car, who promptly crashes into his car from the side.

%%* In ''Webcomic/RealLifeComics'', the AuthorAvatar does this [[https://reallifecomics.com/comic.php?comic=title-45 in an early strip]]. %%Example needs context to make sense on its own - It's not enough to put a link to another site.