The prelude to an injury – ‘What could possibly happen?’ Published May 29, 2012 By Maj. Travis Higbee 71st Flying Training Wing Safety Office VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Have you ever wondered about the mysteries of life? Not the big ones like how to solve world hunger or get rid of taxes. I mean the real mysteries in life, like why do cars burn up but houses burn down? Or why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway? My personal favorite is, if one synchronized swimmer drowns, does the rest of the team have to drown? On a more serious note, why do people say to themselves, "What could possibly happen" just before they get hurt? I don't have all the answers to all the mysteries one might find in life, but I have some insight into that last one. There are two main reasons people get hurt in this life. I know what you are thinking -- "Great, now he's going to give us some poetic diatribe about how to be safe, like safety counts." No that's too cliché even for an old desert ranch-hand turned pilot. Instead, I'm going to share an excerpt from a real life story told by Patrick Kearon. See if you can pick out the two reasons people get hurt. "As a seven-year-old boy living in the Arabian Peninsula, I (Kearon) was consistently told by my parents to always wear my shoes, and I understood why. I knew that shoes would protect my feet against the many threats to be found in the desert, such as snakes, scorpions, and thorns. "One morning after a night's camping in the desert, I wanted to go exploring, but I did not want to bother with putting on my shoes. I rationalized that I was only going for a little wander and I would stay close by the camp. "So instead of shoes, I wore flip-flops. I told myself that flip-flops were shoes -- of a sort. And anyway, what could possibly happen? "As I walked along the cool sand, in my flip-flops, I felt something like a thorn going into the arch of my foot. I looked down and saw not a thorn but a scorpion. "As my mind registered the scorpion and I realized what had just happened, the pain of the sting began to rise from my foot and up my leg. I grabbed the top of my leg to try and stop the searing pain from moving farther, and I cried out for help. My parents came running from the camp. "I had known that when my parents told me to wear shoes, they did not mean flip-flops. I was old enough to know that flip-flops did not provide the same protection as a pair of shoes. But that morning in the desert, I disregarded what I knew to be right. I ignored what my parents had repeatedly taught me. I had been both lazy and a little rebellious, and I paid a price for it." Did you spot in Kearon's story the two main reasons people get hurt? A closer look at that last sentence will reveal them -- laziness and rebelliousness. This summer, while you are out there getting acquainted with the great outdoors via some wild adventure that you and your buddies have concocted through an overly energetic brilliant epiphany and you find yourself thinking, "What could possibly happen?" -- maybe it's time to reevaluate. I am convinced that most accidents don't happen to people because they didn't know the rules or the procedures -- although they will almost always use that as an excuse. Most accidents happen to people because they are either too lazy to follow the rules and procedures or they cognitively decide not to follow the rules and procedures. After all, "What could possibly happen?"