Skip to main content

UNSAFE DRIVING

 
Safe driving is a habit just as much as unsafe driving. Both of them are a matter of choice and practice! It starts with learning to drive: you're either taught to drive the right way or the wrong way. Then you simply proceed from there on to hone the skills and perfect the art as learned in training. The result is therefore as evidenced on the road everyday, each day, 24/7.
 
So it is safe to say that safe and unsafe driving habits are two sides of the same coin.... The real story begins to unfold when that coin is tossed, to land one face up. Violations, collisions, property damage, injuries, anger, frustration and sometimes, death often result when it lands 'saying' unsafe. Then all hell is let lose as previous plans are put on hold or completely derailed to make way for the real issues of the moment. Principal of which is that your trip is immediately aborted as the unsafe driver and one or more other innocent road users have to square up to the reality of a myriad of unplanned events and activities, just because a single inconsiderate individual preferred the wrong way to do things.
 
But should that coin land with the 'safe' side up, then everyone will proceed happily on their way smilingly, thinking what a beautiful day to be out and about! It is that simple. Drivers can change things for the better if they so choose. To do what is right each time at every point on the road till the trip comes to a safe end is the only sensible way. It saves time, money and ultimately, lives. When you think about it, no one needs get hurt just because they're on the road. No vehicle collision makes sense, no matter what.

The unsafe driver really needs to hold that crucial conversation with him or herself. Is running a red light something that makes you feel good? Or turning left at a roundabout a sensible thing to do? What about driving against normal flow of traffic or parking half-on and half-off the roadway, blocking free flow of traffic? What runs through your mind when you engage in such uncivil motoring practices? Whatever you may feel or think, do not forget that other road users are observing your antics and making notes, for in the end the way you drive speaks volumes of your real self. It simply is a mobile advertising billboard of your true personality. Gruff, inconsiderate, temperamental, discourteous, unskilled, lacking in foresight and knowledge of right and wrong.

Yet it doesn't take a whole lot to begin to change - if you really wanted to.

Stay safe, do the right thing!
 
 
Location: Warri, Nigeria

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THAT 5-MINUTE PEP TALK BEFORE THE JOB

There are pep talks and there are pep talks. Over the years, I've had the privilege of observing pep talks all day long on seismic crews, construction sites, production platforms, processing plants, wire line, drilling operations, rig moves and so on. But not once have I left not feeling maybe the crew could have done better with the shape and content of the core messages thereof. This is because I am of the view that safety messages are only helpful if they are clear and to the point, with little or no ambiguity, if any at all. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Now 5-minutes is not a great deal of time for even the most gifted and skillful of speakers to nail  home  the key safety dos and don'ts of the job soon to commence. So most of these talks frequently average out to be sing songs and prayerful affairs in the end, with generalized 'messages' like be 'your brother's keeper', 'safety is everybody's business', 'you all know ...
Post a Comment
Read more

HOW MUCH DOES A NEAR MISS INCIDENT COST?

In 'ACCIDENT IS MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN', we tried illustrating  how a NOTHING HAPPENED near miss incident of a hammer accidentally slipping off a technician's grasp, falling through a considerable height and landing safely between two busy foremen, with no damage to property or injury to anyone on site resulted in so much useful production time loss. A conservative computation of the time-cost estimate showed what seemed to be a 'harmless' incident costing the site company management a hefty 3.4 Man-Days lost time in direct costs! The exercise ended without considering the 'POTENTIAL' of the occurrence. 'POTENTIAL' simply refers to the probability of a much more consequential outcome by chance or slightly altered circumstances given the number of people exposed to the threat at the time. This is usually what constitutes the difference between a 'NOTHING HAPPENED' incident, a disabling/ serious property damage one or a fatality . That th...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Much of Your Opex Do You Save Cutting Corners?

What % of your operating budget do you save when you look the other way while unauthorized changes and deviations are a norm in the workplace under your supervision? Would you 5, 10, 15 or maybe 30%? You are not too sure how much, if anything at all? Well, it is highly unlikely that you will ever save on your Opex if employees are free to make up their own rules as they go along or can decide which step on the job comes next instead of what the approved procedures say. In fact working with scant regards for the Right Way of doing things condemns you to an ever spiraling  operating budget spend. Because you'll find that you are constantly grappling with 'digging a hole to fill a hole' throughout the life of  the project. In the end, there are no prizes for guessing that your project will come in grossly over budget and way outside the delivery schedule because of all the issues of rework, unplanned stoppages, delayed logistics, repairs and replace...
Post a Comment
Read more