Motor accidents - 14 fatalities over the week since Friday, 6th October 2017.

“We can’t handle the truth!” What was the name of the film where Tom Cruise was the lawyer as prosecutor in a Court Marshall and the general of the Marines said "you want the truth. You can’t handle the truth”

Maybe that’s the problem. MAYBE WE CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH.

What’s behind the number of deaths? Why don’t we ask the hard questions? Or are there no hard questions and we are only interested in the easy ones. Maybe it’s because we can’t handle the truth. Maybe it’s because the real answer is so very clear we keep wanting to avoid it and find a more pleasant truth.

Does not the deaths of 14 people regardless of who was at fault – tourists or otherwise require the truth to be found and to be discussed openly. Could the truth also be a panacea for other challenges we have in the work place and the world of Health and Safety.

If there was a GOD and St Peter standing at the pearly gates waiting for the new arrivals; what would they be thinking? What would they be saying to these spirits as they look at the spirit of the 18 month old child? Would God and St Peter know what the truth was? Let’s assume they would.

It is all a bit late. Could it have been avoided? Could it have been prevented and what would each individual (except the 18 month old child) have done to prevent the incident? Why do we have to wait for this statistic to be splattered on the media before we rational human beings take any actions and ask the questions? Why can’t we deal with the truth before the event to prevent the loss? Even in this short time period the deaths are not only a tragedy they are now a statistic to be consumed by time. Part of the truth is that these were human beings with a future.

What is the truth? The truth could be deemed to be the information we are given at the time. The cold hard facts as they are known and can be measured. What are the unknown facts that we can only perceive? The time of this navel gazing is not an event accompanied by emotion or understanding. It’s only supported by the coldness of statistics. Are we afraid of the emotive perceptions? Is this statistic a symptom of our emotive stability in todays world of business and the lives of people that work within factories? Is this why we have a challenge with understanding the human perception of the necessity for compliance under Health and Safety? We can’t handle the truth! Maybe we don’t have time any more to think about the unknown factors of why an accident occurs or how to prevent and accident. That’s okay though because time is measurable. It becomes an excuse. We don’t have time.

Maybe the truth needs to be understood and we need time to look at and understand the unknowns. Once we perceive and begin to recognize that the signals (the losses and wastage) are but a symptom of a much bigger challenge then we can go some way to preventing the losses and death of people.

Maybe we need to invest in “time” to understand and begin to recognize the unknown risks that underpin the risks that we see every day. The risks that we accept on the basis that ‘it happens”. We can create methods to reduce the statistics. These are measurements and perspectives. We are not though looking at the other factors that are not discussed or considered.

These other factors can be issues such as stress of the driver, fatigue of the driver, the drivers skill base, distractions whilst driving and the ability of the driver to say he/she wants to rest before going on any further . So we are coming to the awareness of the driver and also those that are with the driver to ensure that everyone is safe. It’s the factor of being human and caring for one another.

These simple aspects perceptions can also be used in the place of work. On the factory floor or in the office and maybe also whilst out driving the vehicle. Its every persons responsibility to care for another to prevent loss of human life and accidents in the work place.

Maybe that’s the “truth” that we don’t want to face. Although it is all part of being human and not a measurable statistic.