I was driving last Friday evening on the M1, a major motorway in the UK, when at around the same time in probably similar weather conditions one of the worst motorway accidents in the history on the island was unfolding on the M5, another busy motorway. Seven people were reportedly killed and 51 injured in a 34 vehicle pile-up.
Having known about the incident the next day, I probably was travelling in what I call an 'unknown risk' condition where I wasn't aware of the heightened likelihood of an incident in poor weather conditions (heavy rain and fog) and spectacular fireworks that were there to distract the fatigued drivers looking forward to their weekends. Although the controls were all functional, e.g. brakes, airbags, MOT'd car, good tyres etc., they were not designed to operate in a specific event condition like the one on M5.
I believe for businesses unable to identify such risks, they would fall to their Business Continuity and Disastor Recovery Plans as the common controls will be inadequate to sustain the impact from the incident. It is surprising to see the number of businesses, both in the public and private sector, that carry on their operations without such BC/DR plans.
Have you come across organisations that effectively manage unknown risks outside of their BC/DR strategies? If so, please comment. I will be keen to understand this and discuss.
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