Hazardous Driver Attitudes

Someone called Jay Hopkins who writes a regular column on safety for Flying Magazine gave a talk a few years ago at the Aero Club on safety and highlighted certain hazardous pilot attitudes as a particular risk to all pilots. He could as well have been talking about the vehicle driver on our roads today and more so the Kenyan ‘matatu’ driver! Judge for yourself!

Do you recognize any of the following attitudes in yourself or in others?

·         ANTI-AUTHORITY “Don’t tell me what to do!”

Antidote: The rules are there for good reasons. Stop and ask yourself why you want to break them. Is the gain really worth the risk?

·         IMPULSIVENESS “Do something now!”

Antidote: Think before you act and deal with a problem carefully and deliberately.

·         INVULNERABILITY “It won’t happen to me!”

Antidote: That’s what they all said, just before it did! Factor in a safety margin for the uncertain.

·         MACHO-COMPLEX “I can do it, especially if you think I can’t”. The need to impress others. Ties in with Anti-Authority & Impulsiveness.

Antidote: A poor reason for doing anything. People are rarely impressed by Macho, they are impressed by good judgement and sound decision making.

·         RESIGNATION “There’s nothing I can do about it!”

Antidote: What happened to your training? Apply your skills and stay in command.

·         COMPLACENCY “I’ve done this a thousand times and it’s always worked before, so it’ll work this time!”

Antidote: Assume nothing – check everything!

? There is a difference between skill and judgement and the second is more important to survival than the first.

? The less skilled, but conscientious and reasoning driver will probably outlive the highly skilled driver who pushes his or her skills to the limit.

? If you are not aware of your limits and leave no margin for error, your first serious mistake could be your last.

Finally, remember driving is not inherently dangerous, but can be terribly unforgiving of carelessness, incapacity and neglect.

-       Reproduced from Aero Club News of December 2007 (with pilot in the original article being substituted with driver in the above article!!)