A recent survey commissioned
by car manufacturing giant, Ford (http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/travel/travel+news-266802.html), left us quite bewildered at the number of
people across Europe (including the UK), who admitted they wouldn’t be able to
make an emergency phone call while overseas, should the need arise. 75% have travelled by car in countries where
they would have been unable to make an emergency services call in the local
language.
Thousands of families in the
UK travel overseas on holiday every year and one would assume that safety is a
number one priority for most (and we believe it is), but the results of this
survey would have us believe that there is a real lack of preparation and
planning amongst families when travelling abroad; perhaps this stems from a laid-back
culture, complacency or even complete oblivion that the unthinkable might
happen to us?
Either way it’s astonishing
that people head for far away shores where they don’t speak a word of the local
language, with no plan of action, or little thought for how they might tackle
an emergency situation should one occur.
And let’s be honest, these are the kinds of scenarios that we can’t plan
for, we don’t know when lightning will strike just as we don’t know when a
language barrier could present very real problems for us should we find
ourselves in a serious situation where we couldn’t communicate.
What really screams out from
this survey is why are people willing to take such a gamble on their loved-ones’
safety and well-being? The truth is
they’re not willing to. It is simply a case of ‘it won’t happen to me’ and
until that culture starts to shift, there is little chance of change.
Just as you wouldn’t leave
the UK border without adequate travel insurance, your luggage and your passport,
perhaps people should think twice about leaving the UK without an ‘in case of
emergency’ plan?
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