We all have had what we considered to be an accident.  We ran over a curb and took a stop sign down.  We smacked a tree limb and broke a light off the trailer.  Better yet, we smacked a tree limb and put a hole in the trailer.  We hit a car or got hit by a car.  These are all accidents, right? Wrong!

Steve DanielsonThere is no such thing as an accident.  What we call accidents are actually consequences of our actions or inaction.

A couple of years ago a buddy of mine was involved in a so called accident.  He was traveling in very heavy holiday traffic.  Traffic was rolling along pretty well.  He was just sitting there enjoying the ride when suddenly, the truck in front of him, swung left into the other lane of traffic.Low and behold, there was a four wheeler running with his four-ways on, driving in the travel lane and doing less than 45 miles per hour.  My buddy had no where to go.  He struck the four wheeler in the rear.  Fortunately, the damage wasn’t too severe and no one got hurt.  Was this an accident?  No!  It is a concequence of his actions or inaction.  In heavy traffic, or in any driving situation, speed and space are very inportant.  He did not allow himself sufficent space to be able to get out of a jam.  Therefore, it was a concequence of his not paying attention to the situation around him, and not practicing proper space management.

Next time you have few minutes, sit down and think about things that you think are accidents.  Think about what caused the accident, and think why it happened.  For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  A concequence is the result of an action, inaction, or reaction…..There is no such thing as an accident!

Happy trails.      (thanks Sandy for your help!)

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