Driving

This Blog Post was originally published on the platform "writelier" (formerly "co-writers" and "200wordsaday"). Sadly the blogging platform was discontinued. I downloaded all my blog posts and prepared them to be republish them here.

I was browsing around Facebook this afternoon when an article popped up in a paramedic group I'm part of.

Somewhere in Austria, a young Ambulance driver (21 years) had a head-on crash with another vehicle while driving to an emergency. Luckily all involved persons were only lightly injured.

Below was a heated debate ongoing. I read through a few comments and then closed Facebook. I was angry at the people commenting. Although all of them blamed the young driver. And mourned about the short way to an ambulance driving licence.

Although the facts aren't clear, according to the article, people are blaming somebody they don't know and tell young people can't drive. Old people can't drive either.

With all those paramedic shifts I did and the general loving of driving around I'm somewhere around 100k to 200k kilometres I've driven since I've got my licence in 2013. I'm way above average with that numbers, but I still find myself in a situation where I thought "well, I think I've spent my luck for the day".

Accidents happen. You might overlook something or somebody might overlook you. Driving is a highly complicated process where the whole brain needs to focus. Not only do you need to look for others, but you also need to check your speed, shift, look out for signals and road signs. Our brains aren't meant to multitask.

What bothers me are the people instantly blaming the person driving for an accident. Without deep knowledge about the situation, people start to blame. Also, I hate that accidents with Ambulance cars are always extra present in the news. Sure they have large responsibilities, but ambulance drivers are also normal people. People make mistakes. Get along with it.