Even in the Longest Days

I often tell a joke during my training sessions about being a safety guy and knowing that when my phone rings it’s never good news.

“No one calls the safety guy and says, ‘Hey! We’re doing terrific!’ It’s usually bad news.”

There’s one call that all of us safety geeks absolutely hate.

“We had a fatal accident.”

Now I do my best to not have any such call with my regular clients. We go out there every single day to make sure that we are seen.

Just a gentle nudge to say, “We’re here if you need us.”

But we can’t be everywhere and there are a lot of companies that we meet…

…mere moments after the tragedy.

I received such a call this week and immediately responded, going to the scene to help the owners of the company speak with OSHA.

I’ve been doing this for 30 years so I know all of the OSHA personnel.

They’re good at their job and despite the fact that they swing a citation book that can be costly, they genuinely are most concerned with keeping people safe.

A couple of other things usually happen at such a scene.

1). I usually mutter to myself, “This shouldn’t have happened.”

2). I internalize the pain of those who are standing in front of me telling the story.

“We’ve been here for 60 years. Nothing like this has ever happened.”

In a lot of cases, they were just lucky because they weren’t doing things the right way.

They got away with it for 60 years.

Also, there are a number of factors that go into each fatality.

If one item had been removed…

…the dead guy wouldn’t have died.

Usually, ‘He was trying to hurry up,’ is mentioned.

Hurrying through a task, in a dangerous environment, with no concern for protection, which is for the weak-minded guys who are scared.

One minute they’re here.

The next minute they’re gone.

Life is short.

Even on the longest of days.