Mom: Put this in your bag. It came with the school trip paper.
| SCHOOL TRIP · Safety Card |
|---|
| Teacher on duty: Mr. Lo · 0912-345-678 |
| If a policeman asks, show this card |
| If you are lost: stay where you are, do not look for us |
| Meeting point: the big tree by the gate |
| First aid: red bag, with Miss Wang |
| Keep an eye on your bag; do not let anyone rob you |
Wei: Stay where I am? I would rather walk back to the gate.
Mom: No. Two people looking for each other never meet. Stay still and they will find you.
Wei: All right. I will put the number in my phone too, in case the card gets wet.
Saturday · Leaves 6:30 · Back before dark
The path is not hard, but it is long enough to be serious. Most accidents on this mountain happen on the way down, when people have walked all day and go faster than they should.
There is no phone service after the second bridge. This is why the rule about threes matters: one person stays, one goes for help. Everyone must accept this rule; the group master decides, not the user of the path. If you cannot accept it, please do not come on Saturday. Nobody will think worse of you.
Dear Officer Wang,
I am writing about the road between the school and the night market. Four of the six lights have been out since Easter, and yesterday another one went out too.
Three hundred students walk there after their evening class, most of them between nine and ten. Last week a girl in my class was hit on the arm by a jeep's mirror because the driver did not see her until he was very close. She hurt her thumb, but next time may be different.
I have written down the dates and taken four photos. I am not asking for anything extra, only for the four lights that were already there. May I bring the photos to your office this week?
Lin Ann, Grade 8
After something goes wrong, people look for the one person who made the mistake. Often there is one. Almost always there is more.
A driver runs a red light and may end up in prison, but the light had been slow for a year and nobody thought much about it. A worker falls, but the only way up was broken and there was no other. The person at the end of the line is the one we see first and the cheapest to blame.
Places that become safer are usually the ones that stop asking who and start asking what let this happen. It is a slower question and it makes nobody feel better on the day. But it is the only one that stops the same accident from waiting again next year.