Trust and luck.

Think for a moment about how those entities factor so heavily into our daily lives and those of people all over the world. Their prominence in how our existence unfolds was put into sharp focus again by that horrible train wreck in Japan on April 25.

That nation’s worst rail crash since 1963 killed 107, at last count, and left at least 460 injured.

There is an intensive investigation into the possible negligence of the 23-year-old driver of the West Japan Railway train. Some experts say the train was speeding before it derailed in a heavily populated area and tore into an apartment building. There was early evidence the driver was rushing to make up for lost time. Was there chemical impairment of some type? The crash site is about 250 miles west of Tokyo.

Japan has highly dense pockets of population and this entails extensive intrusion and service by rail facilities, which rate with the best in the world. Because the Japanese trains have an outstanding safety record, riders trust the system.

Then there is the element of luck. As things turned out, one particular area suffered abysmally for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Conversely, regions that might have been hit by the errant train were spared. It’s all part of a delicate balance that humans daily depend on to keep them out of harm’s way. For the most part it works out to the advantage of majorities of people.

But trust and luck are such huge factors in whether we survive or suffer, prosper or fail. We depend on many people, such as train officials and operators, public figures, family members, law enforcement personnel, military people, loved ones and work associates to do the right thing and keep their word. When things don’t work out so well and that trust is betrayed, we sometimes can be blessed by good luck. We might “miss” being around an accident area such as that in Japan. Other times, the best-intentioned people we can find are also done in along with us by bad luck.

There are so many tiny aspects affecting whether we live or die, get sick or stay well, suffer injury or escape it. The Japanese train tragedy reminds us again how capricious life is, or can be, and how much we have to depend on others and twists of fate to stay alive and, ideally, be happy.

We depend so heavily by the minute on trust and luck and can be devastated when one or both fail us.