Code Red

How many signals does a person need to have before they find themselves in trouble? I always say that most problems are self inflicted and yesterday I was proved right again. One of our doctors was late to work. When he came in he explained why. He ran out of gas in his car. He drove about 1/2 mile away from home when his car died. He had to walk back home, get his lawn mover, turn it upside down, pour gas into a milk container, walk back to his car, pour it in and drive to a gas station. My first question for him was whether or not his gas gauge was broken. He said it worked fine. He said that he had been driving in the red area of the gauge and thought he could get a few more miles out of it. Obviously he had done this before. Where was his judgement? This is a man with a PhD degree. All of that effort to fix a problem that did not need to happen.