I know, boring, but the non-health related thing we can do to survive is to not die in auto accidents.
Survival isn’t just about “SHTF”, it’s about being here until a ripe old age, whatever it takes… and the best way to do that is focus first on everyday safety.
Statistically, you are far more likely to die from some idiot who’s texting ramming your car head on than in during a post-SHTF running gun battle through the woods.
Texting and driving (distracted driving) kills a lot of people
How big of a problem is this?
In a study published by AAA, researchers found that the scope of cell-based distracted driving was huge.
From the report:
Drivers’ odds of crash involvement nearly doubled when they were engaging in all
forms of visual-manual cell phone tasks taken together and more than doubled when
they were texting, compared with when the same drivers were under similar traffic and
environmental conditions without engaging in any visible non-driving tasks.
The effect of visual-manual cell phone interactions on drivers’ odds of crash
involvement was greatest for types of crashes in which the driver played a clear active
role. For example, visual-manual cell phone interaction:
• Tripled drivers’ odds of involvement in a road departure crash.
• Increased drivers’ odds of rear-ending the vehicle ahead by more than a
multiple of seven.
The association between cell phone conversation alone and crash involvement was not
statistically significant.
OK, Salty, we get it, it’s bad. But what does this have to do with prepping?
It is a core tenant of the 3BY mission, one of our most basic beliefs: If you don’t live though the normal daily trials of life, then you won’t need to worry about being ready when the Stuff Hits The Fan (SHTF)… because dead people won’t care.
Again, I know it’s not a fun or sexy answer, but it doesn’t matter how much prepping and training you do for if the SHTF if you kill yourself by wrapping your car around a utility poll while texting. Prep for the most common causes of disaster first.
Hold my beer and watch this
We all know “Hold my bear and watch this” guys. A very good real-life friend of Spice and I is one of these guys. There are times (especially around July 4) when we log into social media just to see how man times “The Biker” as well will call him has had to go to the emergency room this month after doing something insanely crazy (re: stupid). Last year, he literally had a two-ER visit day for two completely different fireworks accidents.
I asked him “What on Earth were you thinking,” and he just smiled and said “Well, honestly I wasn’t thinking much about anything at the time.”
Here’s the thing about the “Hold my beer” guys… very few of them live to be old, and those that do are generally so crippled from all the dumb they did in their youth they can barely walk.
Over the last three months (well, basically since the start of the pandemic) I’ve seen a lot of people who call themselves survivors doing really stupid things.
We talked about it here in this podcast some, if you want to give it a listen:
Some grist for your mental mill
It doesn’t matter how many years of food you have stored if you drift into a head-on with an 18-wheeler while answering a text.
It doesn’t matter that you are a SuperPrepperSurvivalistNinja™ if you die young because you did stupid.