The holiday season is here and it’s the most joyous time of the year. There’s the smell of warm pies baking in the oven, the sharing of laughter and showing a whole lot of loving. People are relaxing in front of the fire or out for sales, sales and more sales, buying everything your heart desires. There’s festivities with family and friends just thinking, how you never want this to end. Life is great; nothing can ruin this time of the year.
Or can it?
Tragedy is known for ruining numerous seasons and special occasions. Tragedy is defined as an event in life that evokes feelings of sorrow or grief; also a disastrous circumstance or event. It can strike at a moment’s notice. Showing up at the most inconvenient times and places, tragedy will ruin your good times if you allow it.
It’s time to get out the Christmas lights and hang them around the house. After digging through the garage you finally locate the lights.
Now where is that ladder? You find a stepladder not quite the right height, but you can make it work. You are hanging lights up around the house and since the ladder is not quite tall enough, you have to stand on the top step to reach the house.
As you stretch to get that nail that is just out of your reach, the ladder tilts over and “boom” … tragedy strikes. Now instead of spending your days playing with the kids, you are laid up with a broken leg and arm. To add insult to injury, the lights didn’t get finished.
Now where did all the fun and laughter go? Maybe you decide to fry a turkey. You already have a deep fryer and you fry chicken in it all the time, so how hard can it be? They are both birds, so you don’t need instructions.
You get all the equipment out and head to the patio, pour the cooking oil in the pot almost full. The cooking oil is nice and hot; now it’s time for the bird.
Tragedy is lurking around the corner, just waiting for you to place that whole turkey into that full pot of cooking oil. Now the oil overflows onto the open flame, the patio catches on fire and the whole house goes up in flames. Bet you didn’t see that coming.
Every year, some form of tragedy accounts for five deaths, 60 injuries, the destruction of 900 homes and more than $15 million in property damage, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
If we think about it, we can come up with an occasion when tragedy struck either ourselves or someone we know on the roadway because of drinking and driving, distractions, speeding, fatigue, not being prepared for road conditions or when we were just in the zone and not being focused.
Tragedy claimed more than 3,500 lives, and seriously injured more than 17,150 people in motor vehicle crashes in Texas in 2014. Can you imagine tragedy striking every 66 seconds on Texas roadways last year?
Something has to be done to reduce the amount of times tragedy strikes. We need to get this tragedy thing under control. In order to control tragedy, it will take a combined effort from us all and it starts with you. Using the analogy of professional carpenters “measure twice and cut once,” plan twice and make the successful trip once.
During the planning process, incorporate risk management or leave room for shortcomings. The better you plan and prepare for things, the less opportunity tragedy has to strike without being ready to defend against it.
Join us this holiday season in the fight against tragedy. Think it through in all you do. Plan for the worst and pray for the best. Safety is a team effort, so take part in the fight against tragedy.