Using Humor to Share Safety – by Safety Speaker John Drebinger

Just last week, I was visiting friends in Southern California. My friend was driving in Hollywood and suddenly a car made an unexpected lane change in front of us. My friend commented on how stupid the driver was and then proceeded to close the distance between us. This didn’t make sense to me.

The other driver was driving erratically as if they didn’t know where they were going. I noticed the decal on the car said it was a courtesy vehicle from a local car dealer. So we already know they are not driving the safest way possible and probably are unfamiliar with the vehicle and also are unsure of the neighborhood.

Logically, it would make sense to drop back and give them all the extra room they need. Instead, the emotional need to get somewhere quickly was causing my friend to actually speed up and get closer. Tailgating an incompetent driver didn’t seem like the best choice to make.

I smiled and said, “So, let’s see, you have declared the driver in front of us to be incompetent and they are driving erratically so the obvious answer is to get closer and leave us less time to react to their next stupid move.” They smiled and pulled back.

As a safety speaker I have discovered humor can be an effective way of sharing safety.

Yours in Service,
John Drebinger Jr.

Dynamic Presentations Institute – Special Opportunity
If you have wanted to attend John’s Dynamic Presentations Institute and are available April 25th and 26th contact Sandie Gilbert at 209-747-2770 or sandie@drebinger.com to see if any seats are available. John will be doing the Institute for a private client and they have given him permission to have a few others from outside their company attend. Better yet schedule an institute at your company location for your safety team. If you want more information about the Institute please (CLICK HERE)