Risk Mitigation versus Risk Avoidance

Just saw this article on a local newsite:

Girl Killed When Van Crashes into house

Reading the article, the father of the deceased girl says they have lived in the house for 26 years, and cars are always speeding and running the stop sign in front of their house and ending up in their front yard.  He had "even put in barricade walls with reinforcing bar and cinder blocks to prevent this kind of crash from happening."

First, my heart goes out to this family whose daughter was taken from them literally in the middle of the night.  Who goes to bed thinking they may not see their kids in the morning?  Just tragic.  In no way am I blaming the father for this.  All the blame goes on the driver, and I truly hope severe charges are brought and this idiot is taken off the streets for quite some time.

It just struck me that the father, while trying to 'prevent this kind of crash' did not go far enough to protect his family.  Barricades and walls obviously didn't 'prevent' this from happening: they couldn't!  All those measures could do is mitigate the risk of it happening.  This man decided, probably subconsciously, that the risk of this happening, with the measures he had taken, was quite low.  And he was probably right. 

But risk mitigation is not the same as risk avoidance.

He had options to completely avoid this risk, such as moving to a different house.  Or if the problems with the traffic only occurred at night, not using the room as a bedroom.  Or building better barricades to prevent a vehicle from reaching the house.

When preparing for the worst, and dealing with situations as they arise, risk assessment is a critical component of that planning.  Ideally you should avoid risks, and mitigate those that you can't avoid, after assessing their likelihood and potential impact.

Known area of gang activity?  Avoid: use a different route, move to a better neighborhood.  

Threat of an EMP attack? You can't avoid it, but you can mitigate it by owning a pre-computerized vehicle, shielding critical electronics, etc.

All forms of preparedness are risk mitigation: if X happens, I have A, B, and C (plans, supplies, and knowledge) stockpiled to lessen the impact of that event.

But don't apply that risk assessment to TEOTWAWKI.  Use it everyday to be safer, and stay safe.