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City Hall175 East 200 NorthSt. George, UT 84770(435) 627-4000
| March 11, 2010 |
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"Assuming" Leads to Mistakes and Crashes It usually starts out with "But officer, the car in front of me started to go and ..." Or "I thought I had time to.." Sometimes blame is shifted: "He came out of nowhere" or "I pulled out and he hit me. He must have been speeding." Which prompts the question: "Why would you pull out in front of a speeding car?" All these are excuses for a lack on our part to be attentive to our surroundings. When we "assume", we put ourselves at risk. We "assume" that someone else is going to act in a given way, either by normal procedure, or as required by law. We rely on that assumption and then we act, only to find that the other person didn't act as we had "assumed" they would. What are we talking about?
There are so many examples it is impossible to make a complete list. We do these things because we have done them many times successfully, but then we begin to let our guard down as things go smoothly for awhile. This is the dangerous time for us. I worked with my brother for 10 years building houses. He constantly told me not to rely on the work others had done, but to verify that things were really straight, plumb or level for myself before building upon. If I found that things weren't as they should be, then I could adjust how I did my part before I began, rather than have to go back and correct things. The laws are there to be followed, and relied on. But we need to be alert and not rely on other drivers to obey the law. We need to verify things for ourselves. We can't go back once an "accident" has happened and correct things as we do when building a home. One fatality occurred as two vehicles in the left lane approached an intersection. The lead car stopped for an early morning pedestrian, the car following didn't see the pedestrian and made a lane change without slowing and struck the pedestrian just as she came around the stopped car. Another driver slowly begins a left turn, seeing a motorcyclist turn his direction a block away and assumed that there was enough time and distance to make his left turn. But the motorcyclist was talking over his shoulder to his passenger as he hit the gas reaching speeds of 60 miles per hour. He struck the small car midway through the left turn. How do you go back and correct these tragic situations? It is much better to avoid, to prevent, to make sure things are as they should be before we pilot a 3000 pound missle at 35 miles per hour into a situation that we are not sure about. Don't "assume". It is one of the pre-requisites to Murphy's law and it always comes back to haunt you. Craig Harding Public Information Officer St. George Police Department |
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