Complacency Kills

May 09, 2012, my life changed in the matter of 5 seconds. I went from a healthy, extremely active person to bed-bound in the 5 second interval, although it took several hours, then days, then months, to recognize the significance of that 5-second interval.

Let me set the scene for you; it was a beautiful Spring day at the Quad Cities Skydiving Center. The winds were light and variable, the temperature was 92 degrees Fahrenheit. All in all was a beautiful day. First jump of the day, I was doing a skydive that I had down literally several hundreds of times. We rode up to altitude and jumped out. It was a great and successful skydive. I pulled my chute as normal. The parachute opened beautifully. I then proceeded to initiating a turn to set up for landing. As I turned into my final, I knew I messed up. My canopy didn't recover from the turn, in time to build lift that would bring me forward. This meant that I was losing altitude in the last 100 feet, going straight down. I tried to stab out of it, however there was no power in my wing since it still was in the recovery arc. I plummeted straight down into the ground. I hit feet first and tried to PLF (Parachute Landing Fall). I was going too fast and the energy of the impact traveled up my feet and legs, basically exploded my hips/pelvis/sacrum. I must say, it turned into a bad day in those 5 seconds,that ended with the breakage of my sacrum into 5 pieces, my pelvis into 3 additional pieces, both of my hips into 3 places, and my left tibia. There was also nerve damage, and all anterior ligaments in my left knee were torn.

As with all accidents, there was a chain of events that ultimately led to the final outcome. If I had broken any of the links in the chain of decisions linked to the final outcome, I would not have these lessons to share with you today from my viewpoint.

1) I didn't call for conditions with the local AWOS (automated weather observation system). If I had, I would've learned that there was a high-altitude density warning for that day. In layman's terms, high altitude density is a condition where the air molecules do not provide the typical lift that a normal air conditions would've provided. As a skydiver, it was my responsibility to have called for conditions. Knowing that there was a high-altitude density warning would've have told me that I needed to initiate my final turn into landing approach about 100 feet higher than I typically would've, providing a safe cushion to ensure that my canopy had completed it's recovery arc.

2) In the air, I could've checked out my recovery arc to see if my canopy was sluggish, but was too busy enjoying the day and thinking of the next jump sequence.

3) while I initiated the final turn, I should've paid more attention to what my canopy was telling me and pull the turn short to provide a different landing direction that ultimately would've been safer than trying to stab out.

These were the major contributors to my accident. I have had plenty of time to dissect the root causes and issues. These failures on my behalf can be summed up in one word; complacency.

Complacency happens to everyone. It is a human condition that everyone should pay special attention to. Complacency occurs because our humanity leaves us to believe, it won't happen to us individually or collectively. We have a tendency to look for external blame than to accept complacency plays a part in any wrong decision that we might make.

In the work place, this can look like holding onto old policies and procedures that might not make sense anymore but we are comfortable with them, so we resist change. In the safety world, this might be going through the motions of safety procedures without really seeing or processing what is going on and ensuring that we are actively looking for mistakes or failures. Most accidents typically have a chain of events that could've been broken prior to final failure.

In our personal lives, this complacency might be taking our spouse for granted. Going through the motions of being there when we are internally somewhere completely different. This can and has led to divorce, hurt and dysfunction with the root cause of complacency.

I would ask each of you, if you read this post, to take account of your own life. It might not be as dramatic as a skydiving accident. It might be doing better at work, at home, anywhere, just by actively looking for ways to stay away from complacency. Complacency kills, at the very least can hurt very badly.