Risk Management Magazine

Many times in a deployed environment, things that were once high on the priority list are moved toward the bottom. This can be broken down to two simple reasons: time and threat.

When I was in college, I had the opportunity to take a class on the Korean War. Not only did I learn a lot about an interesting part of American and world history, my school also paid for a trip to Korea as well as visits to actual battlefield sites. As a bonus, on our return trip home, we stopped in Hawaii to study the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. We also took time to visit some of Hawaii’s world-famous beaches. I thought this would be my opportunity to finally surf some big waves.

It’s hard to drive today without occasionally being exposed to some form of road rage. Impatient motorists driving along congested highways sometimes take out their anger on those around them. When you’re behind the wheel, you can choose not to engage and try to distance yourself from an aggressive driver. But what about when you’re a passenger? In this incident, what role, as a passenger, could I have played in keeping a highway confrontation from turning into a crash?