Do you blame others for your mistakes?
Remember when you were a kid and you did something wrong and blamed someone else? We did whatever we could to pass the blame over to our brother, sister or friend, even though we knew what we did was wrong. Why do we continue to do that as adults and especially as drivers? What are we afraid of happening?
I was recently listening to some drivers who kept talking about what other drivers have done and how it affected their driving. One of the drivers said how the driver ahead of them forced them to tailgate. Seriously? How is that even possible? I fully understand how frustrating it can be if the driver ahead of you is traveling slowly, but they aren’t making you tailgate them. That’s your choice.
We all spot problems within our driving environment that force us into making decisions. Decision-making is a big part of driving safely since we often have to make numerous decisions each time we drive. If you do the action, it’s because you made the decision to do so and shouldn’t blame someone else.
Dealing with people each day is part of my job at Young Drivers of Canada and I hear people place blame on other people or objects as to why they couldn’t do things properly. If we identify a problem, we need to come up with a counter-measure to solve that problem. Placing blame on something that can’t defend itself doesn’t solve the problem and can often make you look a little foolish.
For example, drivers will often blame road conditions for a crash they were involved in. How is that possible? The road didn’t sneak around on them and make choices. The driver made choices that didn’t allow them to maintain control over their vehicle. Wouldn’t it make more sense to admit they were travelling too fast for the conditions and lost control of their vehicle?
When drivers get pulled over by the police for speeding, they’ll often make excuses to the officer as to why they were speeding. Aren’t they the person who was pressing the gas pedal? Aren’t they the person who has a speedometer? Are they really expecting the police officer to say “Oh, the hill caused you to drive 30 over the speed limit? Ok, I’ll forget the ticket”. It’s time to grow up and take the blame for your own actions and move on.
Placing blame for bad driving has always happened ever since driving began, but now is the time to begin placing it on the person who deserves it. Making mistakes is part of life. Admitting you made that mistake makes you a grown up.