My personal safety record is a little spotty. Back when I was working full-time as a carpenter, I managed to break my jaw when a short length of 2×6 blocking that I was ripping on a table saw kicked back into my face. And just a couple of months ago, I managed to fall off a ladder … or, more accurately, the ladder slid out from underneath me. I probably would have been fine if I hadn’t managed to land on my back on top of … yeah, you guessed it … the ladder. X-rays confirmed that I probably didn’t break anything, though the ER doc couldn’t say with certainty that I hadn’t cracked a couple of ribs. Three months later, it’s still sore.
But that’s NOT a picture of me being pulled out of a trench. That’s Aaron Wentz, a Nebraska plumber who was working in the bottom of a 13-foot-deep trench when it collapsed around him. You can read his story in the article Job-Site Safety Lessons, which is a sober reminder that – sometimes – accidents just happen. More often, though, there are lessons to be learned, and in this article and in Safety Lessons Learned, JLC explores some of the many ways that workers can get hurt on the job. Our point in publishing these stories is that, most of the time, following a few basic safe work practices as you gain experience on the job site will allow you to go home to your family at the end of the day, instead of to the emergency room.
JLC is hoping that you’ll take a few moments to complete this simple survey, and perhaps tell your story to help others learn from your own brushes with disaster. Our plan is to compile the best ones and publish them as a continuation of the Safety Lessons Learned series. If you have a story to tell but don’t want to take the survey, you can send it directly to me at awormer@hanleywood.com.
