Misadventure Never Pays

Confidence is good, but overconfidence is quite the reverse.
Being adventurous may be good, but risk-taking can be
disastrous.

On December 24, 2014, due to dense fog on the Agra-Noida route, a speeding truck on the Yamuna Expressway hit a car from behind. Several other vehicles coming from behind rammed into each other, creating a massive pile-up. In this accident, two people died and 23 were injured. Deputy Superintendent of Police Arvind Kumar said: “What appears to have led to the accident was a combination of over-speeding and near zero visibility due to fog.”

But it was not a combination of two factors. It was rather the outcome of a single factor – overconfidence. When there was fog, the drivers should have taken the precaution of not speeding up their vehicles. But, because they were overconfident, they took the unnecessary risk of over-speeding. The result was quite expected, that is, their journey ended in a serious accident, described by the traffic police as a ‘mega crash’.

Confidence is good, but overconfidence is quite the reverse. Being adventurous may be good, but risk-taking can be disastrous. This is the important lesson to be learnt from this incident.