I have used to have this fear.  I would be driving along and suddenly something would make me think that I might have hit someone.  It might be something on the corner of vision.  It could be some sound.  It could be a bump on the road.  Could it have been someone?  What was that sound?  Did I run over someone?  So what would I do?  I would turn around and check it out.

I would look around.  Nope, no bodies.  But what was that?  What was that sound?  Did I hit someone?  What did I do?  I would turn around again.  And again, nope, no bodies.  I would do this over and over again until I was convinced that I didn’t hit someone.

At one time, my OCD was so bad that I went around in circles for about 3 hours.

Well, I don’t do this anymore.  Actually, I do it rarely.  So how did I do it?  Well, there are two ways.  (It seems that I have to out smart my OCD).

The first trick is to record your driving.  Get a dash cam for your car.  Use your Android phone or iPhone to record video of your driving.  First, you need a dash mount.  Verizon has this neat dash mount that mounts on your dashboard, not on your windshield.  It uses suction to stick on the dashboard.  The mount has these tongs that grab on your phone.  Just swivel the phone to point to the front of the car.  And drive away.  So if you think to hit someone, just check the video.

At first, I was checking the video all the time.  I would stop the car and check the video.  I wouldn’t turn around.  I would just check the video.

Over time, I was checking the video less.  At times, I would hear or see something that would trigger my suspicions that I might have hit someone, but I’d move on and check the video when I finished my trip.  Sometimes, even though I would be wondering if I hit someone early in the trip, but I sometimes forgot to check the video at the end of the trip.

Now, I drive a lot while recording video, but I don’t usually check the video at all.  There are times that I forget to mount the phone on the dash mount and drive away.

The advantage of recording your driving is that you’re not driving around in circles, you save gas, and you save time.  Some therapists may not agree with this solution because I am not exposing myself to the fear of hitting somebody.  Well it works for me.

Another trick is to check the local news web sites after you think you hit someone.  Let’s say you’re driving and you think you hit someone.  Instead of going back and look for dead bodies, just keeping going home.  You might dwell on your fears on your way home but try to ignore them for now and keep going home.

Now, once you’re home, wait for about a 3 hours.  Now, if you’re still dwelling on the thought of running over somebody, go to your local news web site, type in the corner streets where you think you hit someone in the web site search engine and see what pops up.  Very likely, nothing pops up.  If nothing pops up, assume nothing happened.

Just keep doing this.  Over time, you might forget about looking it up in the 3 hour wait time.

The idea behind these tricks is that you would forget about looking it up on your smartphone or the local news web site.  Certain things might trigger your OCD while driving, but you shouldn’t be impulsive by turning around and checking for dead bodies.  Just keep on going and delay your impulse.  Who knows – you might forget all about your impulse.

If you want to use your smartphone, I would recommend a getting a Samsung phone with a 64GB microSD card.  Video takes up a lot of memory, so getting a large capacity microSD card is a good idea.  I am not sure if there are non-Samsung phones that have an external microSD slot.  Otherwise, you going to end up having to delete video files on your phone quite often.

If your microSD card fills up while on the road, do not attempt to delete video files while driving.  You’re making a big mistake if try to do so.  Pay attention to the road and wait to delete the files when your trip is over.  Safety first.

I hope this helps.