{"id":987,"date":"2010-08-19T15:25:01","date_gmt":"2010-08-19T15:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roadawareness.org\/?p=987"},"modified":"2012-10-12T15:43:27","modified_gmt":"2012-10-12T15:43:27","slug":"not-an-accident-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/not-an-accident-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Not an Accident"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pedestrians\"<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAugust 19, 2010
\nBy: Shaun de Jager<\/p>\n

This was no accident and nor is any collision on our roadways. It\u2019s time people start calling things what they really are. This was a \u2018crash\u2019 or a \u2018collision\u2019. Not an accident. What\u2019s the difference you ask? An \u2018Accident\u2019 is something that is unavoidable and unforeseen. Collisions or crashes ARE predictable and therefore avoidable<\/p>\n

When we go out on our roads, there is always a chance<\/em> of being involved in a crash. Lets face it\u2026it happens several times a day. Although\u2026if they happen everyday, they are predictable. So how do you avoid them? Well for starters pay attention to your surroundings and road conditions. By keeping a careful watch on the vehicles around you, you are more able to spot certain behaviours that may lead to trouble. It only takes one person to not<\/em> pay attention to create the conditions for a collision. However, it only takes one person who is<\/em> paying attention to recognise those developing conditions and avoid them entirely. It\u2019s a simple thing called \u2018Situational Awareness\u2019 but it\u2019s something that is sorely lacking on our roads – especially among car drivers. The most attentive road users are motorcyclists and professional truck drivers. Both know full well that they must be well aware of everything going on around them and plan well ahead while navigating our dangerous roadways.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s wrong with the term \u2018accident\u2019? We\u2019ve been calling it that for decade\u2019s right? Yes we have but it\u2019s the wrong term to use because every crash on our roads is in fact avoidable and there is always someone responsible for it. Crashes as a result of Drinking and Driving are avoidable. Crashes that are a result of careless or distracted driving are avoidable. Even crashes that occur because of mechanical failures are avoidable (check your tire pressures, brakes, etc. basically make sure that your vehicle is mechanically sound and your wheels won\u2019t fall off).<\/p>\n

My biggest issue with the term \u2018accident\u2019 is that it seems to absolve a person\u2019s sense of accountability for what happened \u2013 even when deemed at fault. A fellow tells his friend \u201cOh I had an accident yesterday\u201d and his friend replies \u201cIt\u2019s ok\u2026it was an accident. You couldn\u2019t avoid it. It happens so don\u2019t worry about it.\u201d This is such a poor attitude to take. Yes you probably could have avoided it had you paid more attention to your surroundings. Why are collisions acceptable? They shouldn\u2019t be acceptable at all but we blow them off because we call them accidents \u2013 it was unavoidable. I didn\u2019t do anything wrong! Maybe\u2026but there\u2019s always more that you could have done \u2018right\u2019 to have avoided it altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy ran a red light and T-Boned me!\u201d Sure\u2026ok\u2026but you were making a left hand turn, so it\u2019s your responsibility to ensure that you can make that turn safely. It\u2019s not the red light that stops a car at an intersection; it\u2019s the driver of the car approaching it. You are assuming that other driver is paying attention to the lights. You are ultimately responsible for what happens to you on our roads. If that car approaching the red light isn\u2019t slowing down fast enough\u2026assume that he won\u2019t stop at all. If you don\u2019t have a clear view of on-coming traffic\u2026don\u2019t risk making that turn until you do.<\/p>\n

This is just one example but I could go on and on with other situations that could result in a collision and how to avoid them just by paying more attention and making alternate assumptions. If I can \u2013 so can you. Therefore crashes on our roads are NOT accidents \u2013 they are avoidable. There is almost always a shared responsibility for what happens regardless of who is found at fault by either the police or your insurance company.<\/p>\n

If you want to reduce your chance of being in a \u2018collision\u2019, pay more attention to your surroundings and road conditions and get some advanced driver training. Those added skills could save your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was no accident and nor is any collision on our roadways. It\u2019s time people start calling things what they really are. This was a \u2018crash\u2019 or a \u2018collision\u2019. Not an accident. What\u2019s the difference you ask? An \u2018Accident\u2019 is something that is unavoidable and unforeseen. Collisions or crashes ARE predictable and therefore avoidable<\/p>\n

When we go out on our roads, there is always a chance of being involved in a crash. Lets face it\u2026it happens several times a day. Although\u2026if they happen everyday, they are predictable. So how do you avoid them? Well for starters pay attention to your surroundings and road conditions. By keeping a careful watch on the vehicles around you, you are more able to spot certain behaviours that may lead to trouble. It only takes one person to not pay attention to create the conditions for a collision. However, it only takes one person who is paying attention to recognise those developing conditions and avoid them entirely. It\u2019s a simple thing called \u2018Situational Awareness\u2019 but it\u2019s something that is sorely lacking on our roads – especially among car drivers. The most attentive road users are motorcyclists and professional truck drivers. Both know full well that they must be well aware of everything going on around them and plan well ahead while navigating our dangerous roadways.<\/p>\n

Click here to read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,90,7,9,6,5,65],"tags":[64],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pedVzR-fV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2363,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions\/2363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}