Holiday Safety a Top Priority
Posted: Monday, April 20, 2009
by Ryan Stroud
As the weather starts to change, leaves start falling from their trees and nightfall seems to come earlier and earlier every day, Soldiers here at Redstone Arsenal begin to start planning for the upcoming holidays. Three months full of special holidays, trips and family events to end the year can be full of fun, as long as you and your family are safe.
Lockett took a few moments to share some words of wisdom for those planning on traveling to see and spend time with their loved ones this holiday season.
"During the holidays, the roads are always busy with others also trying to reach their family, so you need to make sure you're paying attention to your surroundings," he said. "You may be doing everything correctly on the road, but the person next to you might be on a cell phone and not paying as much attention as they should. Stay alert and aware of what's happening around you and you may prevent an accident from occurring.
"People like to talk on their cell phones while traveling," he continued. "If this is necessary, try to use an earpiece so you can keep both hands on the wheel. People are now causing accidents on the road because they are texting others as well. Cell phone use is causing many accidents so try to keep it to a minimum and use that earpiece."
"Also, driving under the influence is one of the main causes of accidents during the holiday season and year round," Lockett said. "You should always drink responsibly and have a designated driver with you at your holiday parties."
Locket also said Soldiers need to plan their trip out, not just getting directions before hand but also getting the right amount of rest.
"On long road trips, you really need to plan ahead and get the right amount of sleep the night before," he said. "If the trip takes 12 hours or so to drive, you should separate the trip for two days of travel. It is really important to get the proper amount of rest during holiday travel.
"It's also important to properly place your child in his car seat with all the correct attachments buckled because statistics have shown a lot of kids have been thrown from their seat and injured while traveling when not properly locked in," he added.
Lockett feels other military units can also get further involved with holiday safety through pushing not only on the common safety tips like "check your tree lights" or "drive with your car lights on," but other hands-on methods .
"Units can do many things to help spread the message of holiday safety," Lockett said. "First of all, prior to holidays, we here at OMEMS stress the Basic Rider Course for motorcycles and the advanced courses as well. Also, POV (personally owned vehicle) inspections and POV awareness classes are always really important before traveling. Any kind of consistent training on safety will always help.
"If you can gather the whole brigade together and stress safety by showing videos or bringing in a guest speaker, you can really reach people that way," he continued. "Some of the videos you see are very ugly, especially ones of drunk drivers. They can really make you think."
Holidays are time to relax and enjoy your loved ones, Lockett said. If you properly prepare for the holidays, they will be smoother and more pleasurable.
"Be smart and always think safe. If it's not safe, or you think it might not be safe, than don't do it. There are so many things one can do to be safe, you have to make sure you imbed daily in others to keep thinking safety," he concluded.
Ryan Stroud is a military trained journalist who has served in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, US Army. Prior to his military experiences, Stroud grew up playing, coaching, and refereeing soccer. Also, Stroud focused many years of his life playing, touring, and recording/producing local music acts. He has a wonderful wife of 4 years, a 2 year old son and a newborn daughter.
Stroud's biggest writing influences are Jim Butcher, Chuck Palahniuk, Edward Lee, Jack Ketchum, Christopher Moore and Ben Fox.
He currently resides in Huntsville, Al, with the 59th Ordnance Brigade at Redstone Arsenal.
Stroud would also like to take a moment to thank his friends who are currently in battle over in Iraq. God bless all of you.
This Article has been viewed 45 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.