You ever think about your driving? Unless you’ve had a recent crash, a DUI, your premiums jacked up, a nearcrash, or a violation that costs you bucks, why, really, would you?
Complacency is frequently cited as a cause or a contributing factor to all stripes of work-related fatalities, injuries, recordables and near-hits - everything from bad lifting technique to not wearing PPE to circumventing lockout-tagout.
But is there anything we are more complacent about than our own driving? I’d say we take it for granted even more than our health and fitness.
I think, fret and stew about other people’s driving much more than my own. Things out of my control more than in my control.
My daughter drives four hours to a jewelry party at a high school friend’s place in upstate Pennsylvania. I’m on the phone with her the night before going over directions. “Come on, Dad, I have a GPS. It’ll be fine.” Still, I’ve got my cell phone fully charged and in my pocket all day while she’s going back and forth.
My son delivers pizzas on weekends and during the summer while in college. Sometimes at night he gets lost. I try not to think about it.
Some clown cuts me off. Somebody drives too fast through our neighborhood. Drives too slow. Runs a STOP sign. Pulls out of the “Y” parking lot in a tank-size SUV already gabbing on the phone. They all get my attention, as well as wisecracks, curses, assorted animated gestures. Even minor transgressions, like someone failing to use their turn signal, has me shaking my head.
Do I ever roll my eyes over my own driving? Curse myself out for speeding? Cutting off some poor bugger to make an exit ramp?