Reacting, living in the moment are key

The average person lives 9.2 miles from work and travels 4,600 miles to and from work annually. That means over a 40-year working lifetime, he runs about a 1-in-500 chance of a fatal crash en route to work.

Larry Laudan, an expert in statistical analysis and author of "The Book of Risks," says your chance of being killed in some sort of motor vehicle crash this year is 1 in 5,800, while your risk of dying this year as a car occupant is 1 in 11,000.

Survivors and witnesses to such a traumatic event are also affected. Most of us associate post-traumatic stress disorder with wartime combat exposure or rape, but researchers have discovered that a certain percentage of crash survivors develop PTSD following their accident.

The sounds of screeching brakes and squealing tires followed by shattering glass and crunching metal and screams of passengers can haunt survivors long after the crash.

Last week, sports talk show host Colin Cowherd told his radio and television audience he witnessed a serious crash while driving in Los Angeles. Viewing a terrible accident was the furthest thing from his mind as he was driving to a work meeting. The crash between a black SUV and an Audi looked like something out a movie.

Being the only witness and first on the scene, he immediately dialed 911 for emergency help. Within two minutes an LAPD officer was at the scene, and within five minutes, an ambulance arrived. Cowherd helped calm the hysterical victims until the authorities arrived.

Also last week, a photograph of Sheriff's Deputy Ric Lindley comforting a child after an accident near Leeds, Alabama, quickly circulated on social media. After arriving at the scene, the officer saw how distraught the baby's mother was and asked if he could hold her daughter while she composed herself.

Lindley, a grandfather, said it's nothing that any other deputy or father or grandfather wouldn't do. Fellow officer Sgt. Jack Self said he hopes people realize that police officers are husbands, wives, fathers and grandfathers, too.

Experts say the ability to live in the moment - and react based strictly on what is present - is most important in handling a crisis situation.

Al Siebert, an American author and educator, says the best survivors are the ones who are able to "read" the new reality rapidly, focus on problem solving, and take practical action - all within the moment. The way adults manage a crisis can also affect future generations. Experts say the crisis behaviors we exhibit as an adult, such as quickly reacting without even thinking, are frequently rooted in what we learn as children.

Anie Kalayjian, a disaster expert and a professor at Fordham University, says if a child is in a car accident and the entire family becomes hysterical, then the child learns that this is how you react to crisis. She says young children don't have a psychological sorting process to reason out when their parents are going overboard.

Any one of us could be confronted with a crisis event today that carries lifelong impact. Colin Cowherd and officer Ric Lindley are good examples of how important it is to manage one's emotions when confronted with a crisis in the moment.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com