The Flash has one of the most dangerous superpowers in all of comics, but luckily his job gave him the tools he needs to prevent his powers from getting out of control and killing everyone around him. While the different versions of the Flash have had different occupations, each of their jobs give them the tools they need to control their powers. Which is incredibly lucky, as if someone unprepared had received their incredible speed it could have been disastrous.
There are many speedsters in the DC Universe, but the fastest by far are Barry Allen and Wally West, the two most powerful characters who have held the mantle of the Flash. When not saving people as the Flash, Barry works as a Police Scientist and Wally has worked as both a mechanic and as an engineer in one of Mister Terrific’s labs. These jobs require a brilliant scientific mind, something which both Flashes possess. It is a good thing that they have this scientific training, as Wally West demonstrated in a shocking way.
In JLA: Classified #11 by Warren Ellis and Butch Guice, Wally West describes the process of running to meet Linda Park in extremely technical detail. This features some interesting details about entering the speed force itself, like how it envelops speedsters in a hyperdynamic gel, but it also includes an absolutely horrifying tidbit about the dangers of the Flash’s speed. Wally mentions that after just four steps he needs to slow down or else the bow wave emitted from immediately stopping will explode Linda’s internal organs. While this is a terrifying reminder of the devastating potential of super speed, the scientific breakdown Wally provides also shows how lucky it is that these powers wound up in the hands of those who can understand them best.
A bow wave is the wave created when an object moves through a medium faster than the wave itself. It is mainly used when talking about ships, but physicists often use it in more general cases. As both Barry and Wally are scientists, they have likely studied this phenomenon and know how it works. This can thus enable them to modulate their speed to prevent this bow wave from forming and harming those around them. But for a speedster who hasn’t studied the science behind super speed and its consequences, they might have been forced to find this out the hard way. Even outside of this specific case, the Speed Force can be very dangerous as Wally West tragically learned during Heroes in Crisis.
Wally later further uses his scientific knowledge to generate a cloud of water vapor by breaking the sound barrier to put out a fire. If he didn’t have a vast depth of scientific knowledge at his disposal, he wouldn’t have been able to know how to perform that feat, even if he had managed to get a grasp on how his super speed can affect those around him. Thus the scientific nature of the Flash’s job is essential both to prevent his powers for harming those around him and for utilizing his incredibly versatile powers to their fullest extent.