Driving is so routine, such a presence in our zeitgeist, that we easily take for granted the acuity needed to do it correctly and the havoc that just one misstep can cause. Crashes are not accidents; they are almost always caused by a preventable error. And this axiom also holds true for one of the greatest commuting calamities in history.

Distracted driving, dangerous speed, and prideful complacence sank the Titanic over 112 years ago.

The idea popped into my mind as my wife, Momo, and I toured the fascinating “Titanic: An Immersive Voyage” exhibit in Doraville’s Exhibition Hub. During the construction, execution, launch and journey of the world’s biggest and most luxurious ship at that time, there were several oversights and mistakes that added up to disaster and death.

As we walked through the exhibit, we learned that the biggest error took place in the ocean liner’s radio room. The radio operators were not White Star Lines employees, but instead worked for Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio broadcasting. The Marconi Company’s telegraph equipment and two operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, ran and profited from the industry in the room.

Since the Titanic drew worldwide fanfare and enthusiastic people filled its cavernous depths to the brim, messages to and from the ship flooded that radio room. On fateful April 14th, 1912, five telegrams warning of icebergs came across the radio wire. Only two of those warnings got to the grand ship’s navigation crew.

Did Phillips and Bride simply not care? Not necessarily. They were swamped with merry messages and both they and the Marconi Company got paid for each one they delivered. Slowing down that process to carefully consider the gravity of the ice field warnings made little sense to them. More messages meant more money.

Though Bride and Phillips were not at Titanic’s helm, their distractions helped to kill over 1,500 people.

Titanic Captain Edward Smith, the exhibit taught, was supposed to retire, but White Star tabbed their star navigator to helm the Titanic on its maiden voyage. Despite warnings from White Star brass about taking the trip across the Atlantic slowly, Smith’s philosophy was to go full steam (literally) ahead. Smith believed that faster travel actually minimized risk, the exhibit’s narrator said.

Smith advised his crew to change its direction, as they did receive two of the ominous ice warnings, but he never slowed down the R.M.S. Titanic.

White Star billed the Titanic as “unsinkable” - certainly its size and strength could survive almost any strategy. The ship’s architects and executives actually employed a strategy of using less lifeboats onboard, as ships of that era relied upon each other for help. They equipped the Titanic with roughly only half of the lifeboats it was outfitted to carry. That strategy did carry some logic, but the hubris brought by the extravagance of the Titanic likely also fueled the choice.

The lifeboats, if full, could only hold about half of the ship’s 2,240 passengers. In the haste to deploy the safety boats, they left the ill-fated ship with 500 slots open.

As the “ice” hit the fan and water gushed into the hull, one of Titanic’s architects and mathematicians calculated that Titanic had about two hours before sinking.

While third-class passengers already saw water and heeded Smith’s call for all passengers to head to the deck, some first-class riders preferred not to give up their cozy lounges and be bothered with life jackets and the chilly midnight air.

When I have had to take extra steps to ensure my safety in an automobile, I have had the attitude of a first-class Titanic passenger before. Darn seatbelts.

Given the amount of years, expertise, precision, and sweat that went into planning, building and launching the Titanic, everyone involved should have been confident. The Titanic looked impervious to the forces of nature. And maybe it would have been, if humans tended to it perfectly.

Alas, humans err.

That brings us back to our driving on the 2024 streets. Our vehicles are safer than ever and technology aids and guides us better every year. Yet the roadways remain unsafe and drivers carry most of that blame. We are dangerous because we text and allow other distractions to wobble our axes. And we zoom from place to place, no matter the weather or the traffic. We act like we are bulletproof.

If the most luxurious liner of its time, the Titanic, could not overcome the errors of its stewards and avoid disasters on its own, then certainly our automobiles cannot.

Yes, this is the stuff that enters my head on a date night at a museum installation.

Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Team Traffic on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Guy. Download the Triple Team Traffic Alerts App to hear reports from the WSB Traffic Team automatically when you drive near trouble spots. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com.