A word about complacency.

[JF Massicotte]

Hello fellow chasers. I replied this in the news thread about the tragedy everyone heard about yesterday. I will post it here because I feel it could remain relevant to most aspects of chasing (and life).

I have waited until today to post my thought. First, all my thoughts are for the families of those involved in this tragic accident.

The chasing world reminds me a lot of a safety training I had a couple years ago. I work an inherently dangerous job just like storm chasing and I think what I learnt in the training applies pretty well here.

When looking at the last few chasers deaths, there is a constant to appears obvious to me: they fell victim of complacency. For our case, I will define complacency as a natural human behavior when constantly dealing with a level of danger and said human gets to the point he/she no longer fears said danger. I think it is not only human but natural animal behavior as well.

When faced with a danger multiple times, you no longer fear and it becomes easy to let your guard down. This is something true for just about EVERYONE. I don't think it is a coincidence if the majority of tragedies have struck chasers who were experienced and seasoned, just like a 10 years veteran firefighter seems to have more chance at being killed than a probie. The more you chase, the less you fear the tornado, the roads, the chaser crowd. That's normal. Tim S. no longer feared the tornado. That's normal. And the next thing, you lower your guard and realize too late you just got caught.

I've looked at Kelley's stream in the past and I never identified him as being reckless, maybe I just have a short memory. I don't think he has that habit to pass stops like he sadly did yesterday. I don't have the full story, and probably never will, but it looks to me that the driver was just overwhelmed with chase information and didn't pay enough attention to the road. We all know that driving around storms is the most dangerous part of chasing, but after a couple years we no longer fear it. We no longer fear it to the point where we treat the driving part of chasing mechanically just like normal driving going to work, we feel like driving 300 mile on a chase day is the same as driving 15 minutes. Anyone here taking extra precautions to make sure he stays fit and never get tired before going out?

If anyone comes and tell me he's never complacent, I will reply he's a liar. Everyone is. Only thing is, once you are aware of that, you can try to control it's effects. May this example make you fear yourself when you no longer fear what was once recognized as a threat. I cannot swear this could not have happened to me neither would I trust anyone who would.

It's not just the roads or the tornado, the next tragedy could be lightning related and the same will apply. Most chasers no longer fear lightning and I can predict with a lot a confidence some will get killed one day. Could be flash floods. Many things we get to fear less and less.

 

[Jeff House]

At work our safety messages hammer the point. Complacency is a problem for sure. It could be chasing, regular driving, working in the yard, home improvement, working on the car, anything where safety should come first. Wear personal protective equipment when working. Read safety directions on tools. Your family expects you to do the job safely and/or come home safely. Respect nature when chasing. Getting too close to tornadoes without a valid research purpose is not necessary to maximize enjoying the hobby.

 

[Paul Knightley]

Firstly, let me say I agree - complacency can be very dangerous - just want to get that out there because things posted online can be taken out of context, the wrong way, etc.

The reality of life is that I guess we need *some* form of complacency to just get out of bed in the morning. For example, if I didn't think there was a very high chance of me getting to work OK, or, for that matter, even being able to walk down the stairs at home OK, then I probably would become a hermit and just stay in bed all the time. But even that might be dangerous, somehow.

The point I'm trying to make is that complacency, to a certain level, is something we're 'hard wired' to show. We have to make some assumptions in life to just be able to live it. That's just how it is. However, I think there are situations, for example, driving, where you need to be conscious of when you're starting to become too complacent (I can't measure it, no-one can). I think even with driving you have to make some broad assumptions, e.g. that your car's wheels are not going to fly off, just because you're driving on the freeway and freeway speeds. But complacency should end when it comes to when you might encounter other traffic/drivers, and other hazards. We need a way to 'short circuit' the complacency, and recognise when we might be getting too relaxed.

I'm probably not wording this quite how I would say it in person, but hopefully you can get the gist of these sentiments.