Risk Management Magazine

While working as an assistant trainmaster for the Union Pacific Railroad, my job as a manager required me to be on call should any problems arise in my area, which ran from Kansas City, Missouri, to McAlester, Oklahoma. On a warm mid-summer evening, I got a call that would remind me just how precious life is and how we should never take it for granted.

This accident was my fault. I was driving too fast for my level of experience and traffic conditions. I was passing on a blind curve — a very dangerous thing — and thought I knew how to ride when, in reality, I didn’t.

It was October in south Mississippi and the weekend was upon us. For some, it was probably no different than any other weekend. For others, however, it signaled the beginning of something we’d looked forward to all summer — hunting season!