Five minutes could save your life

THE majority of us simply know how to unlock the doors of their vehicles, get in, turn on the ignition, shift the gears and vrooooom, off we go! Don’t tell them how any single component works or emergency DIY (do it yourself). In any trade of profession, one must master the basics and advance to the top in order to be comfortable with whatever you are doing. I have always said that, driving is a “tacit action”; tacit actions are those that get embedded into us and we do not have to think before performing them. As such, driving becomes a habit and an integral part of the driver. This means, a driver will simply get up, jump into a vehicle and off he will go, there is no need to think, the actions are automatic. All the driver needs to have at the back of his mind is the route he will take and that it is! With the above in mind, a bad driver will drive with little caution just as a good one would be expected to act accordingly. It means, if you learn from an incompetent driver, you might also become as lousy as your teacher unless you take an extra effort to excel! In order to be a good driver, one must take an effort to learn the basic mechanics of the vehicle he or she will be driving. Imagine it is late at night and you are driving on an isolated road, anything can happen, your vehicle could develop a mechanical problem ranging from a tyre punctured to lights failing to work or the vehicle not starting at all. What would you do in order to mitigate the risks that face you?Several years ago, I was driving to town, I had come from Kacyiru and the nearest route was Kacyiru-Kinamba. Just as I was beginning to descend the hill I saw a car that had stalled. There were two ladies and they were frantically begging me to stop and assist them, I slowed down and scanned the area for any danger before I could stop! After stopping, they told me that, they had had a puncture and were unable to remove the bad tyre yet they had the jack and spanner! They had taken a good one too many, but the cold and fright had sobered them up. Here they were stuck in the middle of nowhere and past midnight. I stepped out of the car and within five minutes, I had changed their tyre. They could not believe that it takes so short to change a tyre. Reason? They were never taught how to fix one! All their efforts were on getting the vehicle running and nothing else! As a driver, do you know how to change your tyres? If you have an idea, have you ever done it practically? If not, please go out there and try it out. Your life and safety of the vehicle could depend on the five or so minutes it takes to change a tyre!

Lifestyle

Five minutes could save your life