Underestimating a Situation
Kevin Felts 01.17.18
When there is a given situation, it is amazing how many people ignore the dangers. People living in colder areas will probably laugh at this, but let’s use the recent winter blast that dipped into Texas as an example.
Before the Arctic blast dipped south, news stations all across the region were warning of snow and ice. Some places got more snow and ice than others, but we all got it.
Major bridges in the southern tip of southeast Texas were closed.
Schools for hundreds of miles in all directions were closed.
Yet, even with bridges closed, schools closed, warnings about bad weather, people were still on the roads. How bad were the wrecks? Hundreds of accidents were reported in the Houston area. This was not a couple of accidents, or even several dozen accidents, it was hundreds of accidents.
I can understand someone such as a doctor, nurse, police officer, i.e. someone who is critical for society, to operate to be on the road. These were not those types of people. People who did not understand the situation, or ignored the dangers, put others at risk.
Here in Southeast Texas, snow and iced-over roads are a rare situation. We have idiots who drive at dangerously high speeds when it is raining. It is as if the rain washes their brains of common sense. When we get snow, very few people down here know how to drive in icy conditions. Almost nobody has snow chains for their tires.
Even with all of this in mind:
- Icy roads.
- Snow.
- No snow chains for tires.
- No experience driving in snow and ice.
- Lots of rear wheel drive vehicles.
- Most four wheel drive vehicles are trucks and SUVs.
- Warnings about iced roads broadcast days ahead of time.
People still deiced to get on the roads, which contributed to hundreds of accidents in Houston alone. One report stated a hundred wrecks happened in six hours.
Some people live paycheck-to-paycheck and figure they cannot afford to miss a single day. However, now they are going to be sitting at home while their vehicle is in the shop.
When people are so irresponsible about driving in snow, how will they act when a real disaster hits? Even when the United States is in the wake of a flu epidemic, people are still going about their business as if nothing was happening.
It would seem that if the news were reporting a viral black death going around, the first thing some people would do is drive to the shopping mall. Why? Do they not understand the dangers of a given situation, or do they simply not care?
