0198 - Keep Your Kids Safe Around the Driveway [ 14:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (236)

I don’t know you all got to spend your Father’s Day, but I hope it was like mine.  With your kids and other loved ones and absent of 911, the police and the emergency room.

Father’s Day will never be quite the same for two dads whose children died from injuries sustained when their fathers accidentally drove over them in the driveway.  For whatever reason it makes me feel a bit better to find out that alcohol was not a factor in either situation, but I bet is no comfort to the fathers.

You can read the story here.

I am of the belief that there are only three reasonable places for your young children to be when you are moving vehicles or equipment in your driveway or yard.

1. In the house
2. In the vehicle if appropriate
3. Under the DIRECT supervision of another adult who understands the circumstances.

This can be a real pain.  I have a lot of opportunities to move vehicles and equipment and I can’t tell you how much time and energy I have to invest making sure my kids and the area are safe for my children and for me to work in.

• Understand that we have to live our lives with safety in mind.  Develop the habit of constantly evaluating the threats you encounter in life and know how to deal with them.
• Develop routines to address safety concerns.
• Communicate
• Build in extra time to allow you to do things safely.  Being in a rush often leads to carelessness.

It is fun and cool to think about how we might deal with the tactical situations in life.  We need to make sure that we don’t focus on the high speed stuff to the exclusion of the mundane.  It is the mundane that presents the greatest threat to our safety on the most regular basis.