Why life SHOULD be a risky business

IN DECEMBER 1991, a small plane crashed in Florida, killing the man and woman on board. The pair were qualified pilots, and the man was also a qualified flight instructor.

Normally, this would indicate an equipment malfunction. But investigators found some unusual circumstances that led to a different conclusion: neither pilot had been wearing their seat belt or safety harness; neither was fully clothed (not unknown, as clearly a crash can tear material, but zips and belts were intact meaning the clothes had been removed before impact); and finally, the instructor’s seat was fully reclined . . .

These pilots, it should be said, are the exception. Elsewhere in this book, aviation is cited as an example to the rest of us.

Research psychologist Steve Casner is also a qualified pilot, and he reminds us that every commercial flight has two pilots, two air traffic controllers, two computer systems and so on. Each human, however, has only one brain. So shouldn’t we take more care in our everyday lives, building in back-up procedures to keep us safe?

I really wanted to like this book. Mocking ’elf ’n’ safety jobsworths is all very well, but attitudes can change. Indeed, ensuring my son wears a bike helmet has led to me feeling unsafe without mine.

The book does m a ke some interesting points, often with humour. A recent study, for instance, found that the quality of our texting suffers when we’re distracted by driving a car. Casner reports that men rate the risks of drinking, taking drugs and smoking 10 to 15 per cent lower than women do. And there was a 9 per cent increase in car crashes near U.S. football stadiums where the home team had just suffered a loss or a tie.

Too much of the book, though, is Casner clucking around like a slightly unhinged mother hen. He promises his approach won’t take all the fun out of life, but then writes that he now thinks of backing his car out the drive ‘in the same way I think about walking across a room naked while holding a cup of sulphuric acid filled to the brim’.

He reacts to the fact that three children a day die in car crashes in the U.S. with: ‘The first thing I could recommend to anyone is to minimise car trips that involve kids.’

Casner’s daughter once ate some powdered Ajax while his wife was cleaning the bathroom. The girl was fine, but nevertheless: ‘Why not make a standard procedure for cleaning hour in which the child is taught to knock before entering the bathroom?’ His daughter was 18 months old at the time.

She’s now five, and by God I feel sorry for her. Casner won’t let her have a bunk bed because he’s read how many children visit hospital each year following related injuries. Nor can she have a trampoline.

‘The American Academy of Pediatrics,’ he explains, ‘unequivocally recommends against backyard trampolines.’

I bet it does.