SEE — Search, Evaluate, Execute.

On Saturday I was almost run over by an Auto Recovery Land Rover reversing at dusk on Uhuru Highway at the Bunyala Roundabout.

It didn’t matter that I was as visible as a neon sign with my high visibility helmet, reflective jacket and a reflective cover on my back pack.

Either the driver of the recovery truck didn’t see me or he didn’t care. What saved me were the skills I learnt through the Motorcycle Safety Federation Risk Management System SEE.

The system is based on the premise that you are the one most responsible for your own safety. As a rider, it is your job to look out for yourself, and not fully trust others any more than you have to. No one has your best interests at heart more than you.

By applying the SEE strategy, I gave myself time and space to avoid being run over.

SEE — to Search, Evaluate, Execute.

It is the strategy to help you understand what is going on in traffic and to be constantly planning and implementing a course of action. To SEE is to Search for factors that might lead to trouble, Evaluate how the factors might interact to create risk, and to Execute an action to maintain a margin of safety.

To SEE is to ask ourselves such questions as: What’s the other person going to do? What if that driver doesn’t see me? What if there’s gravel in that curve ahead? What if that car doesn’t provide the right-of-way at that intersection? These everyday riding situations have something in common: if a strategy for dealing with them isn’t employed, they can easily lead to a crash. To put it simply, you must continually SEE.

Please read  a brilliant article on The SEE system by Jeff Cobb of  Motorcycle Safety News here.

Ride Safe