Traction Heroes Ep. 38: Checklists

Avoiding catastrophic failure is essential for gaining traction — and many so-called accidents can be prevented with a bit of forethought. This idea was at the core of episode 38 of Traction Heroes. Harry kicked it off with a short reading from Alan Levar’s There Are No Accidents, Only Collisions. Here’s a subset: It’s stunning how often simple safety checks were not carried out on tractor-trailers that subsequently crashed. Things that could have been fixed easily. Human error or judgment is not usually the cause of the collision, but rather it is the driver’s failure to make simple routine checks he should make every time he gets behind the wheel to make sure his truck is safe as possible and he won’t needlessly endanger the public. These checks usually take only five or ten minutes before the driver gets behind the wheel of the truck. Of course, I wanted to probe further. How do these checklists come about? Are they provided by experts? Compiled from firsthand experience? Both? In…