As uncertainty increases, so does human stupidity.
June 24, 2008 Driving No Comments
I have witnessed this on many occasions. As something becomes less familiar, the human mind has to work overtime, which causes mistakes and irrational decisions. This could result from getting lost, being delayed, having major changes to deal with and many more things which all too frequently happen.
For example, I am stuck in traffic because they have to clear the scene of an accident. The woman in the car in front of me isn’t very patient. She sees several trucks cross the median of the road, a huge grassy dip. The trucks can make it, but I very much doubt a car could. She attempts it several times, but each time suddenly decides not to take the risk. At one time, her entire car was off the pavement and it looked like she would actually try it.
There was no traffic coming from the other direction since all four lanes were shut down. It took about thirty minutes for traffic to start flowing again. This wouldn’t have been quite as stupid had she actually gone and made it across. But if she had failed, it would have been so much better.