Seems like the only way to prevent accidents from happening is to avoid them all together. That may seem like a pretty silly thing to say and something one would do just out of the sheer instinct to survive. But, avoiding accidents is not always an option since we seldom see them coming and that is why they are called accidents.
Accidents are different from something done with intent and conscience effort. Like baking a cake. You have all the right ingredients, you mix everything up according to the instructions, put it in the oven, bake @ 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes and presto a chocolate cake. What could go wrong? You read the instructions wrong and added 1 1/2 tbs of salt instead of 1/2 tsp, the electricity goes out 10 minutes into the baking time, you opened the oven to sneak a peek and it fell like a rock, your daughter called, she ran out of gas, you ran out of the house and by the time you got home 2 hours later, your chocolate cake is a chocolate brick you could use as a corner stone or grave marker.
Accidents happen to the best of us and nothing or no one is immune from them happening simply because life happens and accidents come with the territory. Frankly, it is a miracle we survive each day at all when you think of all the accidents that could happen. But lucky for us we can count on more of them not happening than do happen.
Some accidents are avoidable, like checking your gas gauge before you get on the freeway to go to work. Some accidents are good. Running into an old friend you haven’t seen for years. But still and all when we think of an accident we think of something that ends you up in the hospital with a lot of unintended consequences.
Most accidents can be avoided by being aware of the causes. Bath tubs are slippery, taking giant leaps of faith off the side of a cliff, picking up hot objects with your bare hands, stabbing yourself with a pair of scissors you tried to use as pliers, drying your hair in the bathtub, texting while driving and work, avoid working. Working can be very hazardous to your health. There are 337 million accidents that are job related with 2.3 million job related deaths occurring ever year. To be safe quit your job. And, of course home is the number one place where most accidents occur so to be safe don’t live in a house.
There is always another and better way to still be able to go to work and live comfortable and safely in a house, be aware and be careful. You don’t have to be a statistic except for perhaps that unavoidable-can’t-explain-it-random bolt of lightning that shoots out of the clear blue sky and kills you. There is not much you can do about random. Think that is a god thing. The old adage, I use these a lot because I am more of an adage than not, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” applies in all cases, random aside.
All this to post on topic, 2 accidents that seriously could have been prevented. Prevention seems the only answer to avoiding deadly consequences since there is no cure for death.
Toxic waste spill in northern Alberta biggest of recent disasters in North America
Ecuadorean Amazon oil slick heads towards Peru
Land slide. earthquake, accidents happen.
This just goes to prove that sometimes it is just not good enough to say “BE CAREFFUL.” Or, make it a law that says you must be careful. Sometimes when it is a matter of life or death you just have to say NO.
I would never let my kids play in the street. Telling them to be careful would not have prevented an accident from happening. Telling Frackers to please be careful so none of their toxic, deadly chemicals accidentally escapes, explodes, spills or leaks into our precious water supply will not prevent the accident from happening. Every fracking operation is an accident just waiting to happen.
SLO Clean Water 