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.

Eventually, I returned to two wheels, and I think of my friend often when I ride. If anything positive came out of his death, it’s that I am now a better and safer rider.