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Hundreds of Wood River Valley drivers are revved up to compete in the third annual “5Be a Distracted Driver” competition, which kicks off Sunday, Dec. 21, in downtown Hailey.
In the 5Be, drivers are tested on their ability to operate a motor vehicle while engaging in activities such as eating hot soup, folding laundry, sleeping, brushing their teeth — or their dog’s — watching a movie, scrolling on a phone, cooking or grilling, writing poetry on a typewriter, juggling, masturbating and painting.
“Really, they just have to be focused on anything and everything except actual driving,” said race organizer Reggie “Bodywork” Smith, who created the event to showcase the valleys unbelievable concentration of distracted drivers. “You think you’ve seen bad driving in this valley? This comp promises to take that to a whole new level.”
“Being a terrible, distracted driver is all I have ever known.” — Evan Gibbons, 18
The electrifying competition will continue throughout the winter and spring before concluding in midsummer — a winner will be crowned July 20, 2026 — giving drivers ample opportunity to showcase their skills in a variety of driving conditions.
Smith said launching the competition just before Christmas “really adds to the already existing anxiety of holiday traffic, stress and road rage.”
Many participants have been practicing for months — even years.
Evan Gibbons, 18, said he has been preparing for the event for as long as he can remember.
“I started driving with extreme distraction as soon as I got my license,” said Gibbons, who recalled doing homework and eating a full plate of scrambled eggs while driving his GMC Sierra 3500 to school in the mornings.
A heavy favorite to take this year’s crown, Gibbons said he was taught by the best.
“My mom was always doing at least 20 other things while driving me and my sis around when we were little,” Gibbons said with pride. “Being a terrible, distracted driver is all I have ever known.”
The winner will earn not only a $100,000 purse but also a stint in the Blaine County Jail.
Several community members have expressed opposition to the event, saying it is exceedingly dangerous to the public.
Others said they didn’t know the competition even existed.
Althea Salty, of Ketchum, said that when the competition was ongoing in 2024 and 2025 she figured it was just par for the course.
“I thought it was just a normal sign of how people no longer have the attention spans to focus on a specific task for more than 1.3 seconds,” said Salty, 72, who has lived in Ketchum for 47 years. “Honestly, driving in this valley has been a slugfest since COVID, when a bunch of [expletive] decided to move here.”
Ketchum driver Karen Snubbard, 33, won the 5Be in 2025 — despite hitting pedestrians in crosswalks on three separate occasions, a significant point deduction — after several months of truly distracted driving. Her performance included executing skilled maneuvers while cooking full meals on a stove she installed in her dashboard, having sex, singing and dancing, clipping her toenails and taking hundreds of selfies.
She secured the victory when she drove her Toyota Tundra through Ketchum while simultaneously riding a Peloton in the bed of the truck.
“We’ve never seen anything like that,” Smith said. “There was no way we weren’t giving her the belt after that. It was truly breathtaking.”
Smith emphasized the public should not confuse the event with the inaugural Dissociated Drivers Comp, which begins in August of 2026 and, he said, “promises to be absolutely mind-bending.”
