Whether you are in a boat, a plane, a train, a bus or a car, you are taking a leap of faith. You hope that the vehicle is fit for purpose and that the person in charge knows what they are doing.
And, as anyone who has done any travel at all knows, that isn’t always guaranteed.
Just today, my taxi driver in Abu Dhabi took a call on his mobile phone while driving. He chatted away for several minutes on the handheld device (no Bluetooth) and when he hung up, he apologised, saying it was the taxi company calling him.
Now I’d like to think that the first thing his boss might do would when calling would be to ask if he had a passenger and, if so, tell him to call back when he didn’t and could park safely. Call me a dreamer.
If the people running the taxi company don’t care about road safety, then who will?
The thing is — and this is not just true of where I am — there will never be a culture of safety until everyone buys into it.
As passengers, we need to be prepared to speak up about it.
