One for the Road

Nearly 10 years ago I had the privilege of working as a Firefighter/EMT (FF/EMT) in a busy metropolitan area. FF/EMT's have a front row seat to some of life's most inconceivable tragedies; and all too often those tragedies come in the form of Motor Vehicle accidents (MVA).

The US Department of Transportation estimates that the typical driver will have a near automobile accident one to two times per month; and all drivers will be in a collision of some type on an average of every 6 years. MVA's account for nearly 45% of all Unintentional-Injury Deaths in the United States. They happen all day long, every single day of the year. They know no boundaries; they are equal opportunity killers.

In my experience, alcohol and drugs played no small part in causing these accidents. To a very large degree, these accidents happen at night - just when you'd expect that they might. So if you don't have to be in your car when the bars are closing, you definitely should NOT be. But there's another accident cause out there that, in my opinion, is grossly under-reported. Lack of patience.

I've seen as many accidents that I would attribute to a complete lack of patience as I would alcohol. And while the greater majority of these accidents do tend to happen during "rush hour", they actually happen all day long. It's the underlying cause of a great many accidents that get blamed on other things, like excessive speed, reckless driving and road rage.

So as you head out for your road trips this Labor Day Weekend, I'd like to encourage you to keep a few simple tips in mind. Get a good night's sleep and leave early; avoid rush hour; get off the road at a decent hour; and if traffic gets heavy or comes to a complete stop, pull off and take a break. But most of all, just be patient.