Slips, Trips, Falls Etc. CAN Happen To You...Believe It!
Dave Smith has been an Industrial Maintenance Electrician since 1975. He has taught maintenance, troubleshooting and safety courses to thousands of electricians in mines, mills, refineries, factories, plants, power stations and offshore platforms throughout North America and the Middle East. Dave is a hands-on guy and teache...
By Dave Smith
Some safety presentations are an uphill battle as you try to engage your audience; it's hard to turn the subject of "Slips, Trips and Falls" into a "sexy" presentation. After all, there is nothing complex about the subject, and it's really difficult to get your audience to believe it could happen to them.
Yet the aftermath of a slip, trip, fall or something similarly simple can be devastating, and most of us know someone who has suffered one.
My friend Garth, for example, has had his left arm in a bandage for the last three weeks; he was using a chop saw and reached on front of the blade while it was still spinning, slicing his forearm.
A lot of you are thinking, "Hmm, that was pretty stupid: I would never do anything like that!" , but Garth has spent his life working around tools and heavy equipment. This guy is careful, cautious, rational and experienced. Had someone warned him at the beginning of the job to be careful of the blade, he would have looked at them as though they were insane: he knew the risks. Heck, he could have taught the course! He just never really believed it could happen to him.
Luckily, Garth will be fine. Had the blade sunk just a little deeper, he would have damaged his tendons, very likely ruining the skills of a fine hockey player.
Dawson is a guy I've known for 40 years. This is a man of amazing strength: one-handed push-ups were a breeze for him. He slipped in his bathroom four months ago and cracked several cervical vertebrae, losing control of his hands forever. He may have muscles like iron, but his neck is still just bone.
Two years ago, my ex's nephew came over a hill on his snow machine and made a hard landing on his tailbone, cracking his lower back. That was the end of the 20-year career he knew, and he was forced to take different job with much poorer pay and benefits. (You'd be amazed to discover how poorly you're insured when your injury is outside of work!) So while he can still work, he walks on his toes with strange backward lean, and wears diapers because some of the nerves he damaged control his bladder.
One thing that no instructor, trainer, supervisor, etc., can do is make you believe it could happen to you. All we can do is give you the information. It's up to you do, you are a danger to yourself.
Even when you do make that leap of faith, all it takes is one momentary lapse of judgement and you're on the ground. I have investigated enough accidents, taught enough courses and talked to enough victims to know how easy it is. And despite knowing how vulnerable we are and the importance of being careful, I also recently had a close call.
For the last month I have been climbing in and out of a semi trailer we are setting up as a mobile electrical training lab. Three days ago, just as I was about to climb back down a step ladder, someone came along and "borrowed" it without telling me. At that moment, my son said something and I turned my head back just I look my first step. My right ankle slipped and turned and, by the grace of God, my foot stopped on the lower edge of the precipice. One more inch and this 58-year-old body would have hit the ground with a sickening thud. I was lucky.
It's hard enough trying to protect yourself let alone your workers. When I met Kevin, one of the first stories he told me was when, as a production supervisor, he had a painter under him who always "forgot" to use his fall restraint. Kevin had lectured him o this matter over the course of two years. One day, the painter again stepped out of the man-basket just to reach an extra inch.
The painter survived the 20-foot fall, but his brain damage is permanent-as is his wheelchair.
Afterward, Kevin's manager sat him down and explained he wanted Kevin to be more demanding, Sure, his crew may call him a jerk every day for the rest of his working career, but they would go home safe, and Kevin would not have any more invalids on his conscience.
The manager was right on both counts: some of Kevin's crew did think he became a jerk, but Kevin also retired 20 years later with no more invalids on his conscience.
If you care about yourself and others, the first step is simple: you have to believe.
Until next time, be ready, be careful and be safe.
Canada Training Group has been providing consulting services to industry since 1980; Dave Smith, the president, can be reached at davesmith@canada-training-group.ca.