Earlier this week the whole management team where I work watched an Occupational Health & Safety DVD called “Remember Charlie”, narrated by Charlie Morecraft. Like a lot of people I approach these kind of things with a bit of a sigh and a roll of the eyes as a) they are often badly made and b) I work in an office environment anyway but how wrong I was to think this way. This DVD is really powerful and Charlie’s story of what ignoring safety procedures did to him is absolutely compelling. It had a big effect on everyone in the room.
The DVD runs for about an hour and it is simply a movie of him delivering a talk to a bunch of delegates (I think they were from Union Pacific). Now some people really know how to capture an audience and make their story relevant and this guy has it in spades so the hour just flies by. Charlie talks of how he was a blue-collar, regular guy working in an oil refinery and how he believed that safety regulations were a “management fad” and how he really knew best in any given situation. By breaking at least four of the safety regulations whilst changing a valve, Charlie caused a major accident in the refinery and was badly burnt over 50% of his body. He freely admits that safe procedures were in place but he ignored them.
He pulls no punches in telling you what is involved in recovery from a major burns injury – including a great deal of agonizing pain and many operations spread over a long period of time – and the effect it has on the people around you. The stress over his accident took a terrible toll on his parents, eventually cost him his marriage and drove one of his daughters to a suicide attempt. The consequences just seemed to go on and on.
At one point Charlie mentions that one his fellow patients in the burns unit was in there because, of all things, the barbecue in his back yard blew up. I suspect that there were about 20 mental notes made in the room to check the barbecue when they went home that night – I know I did!
Eventually he was able to put his life back together and now he is on a mission to spread the health and safety message far and wide. When you hear what he has been through and how it was all entirely preventable you tend to believe him when he compares the “discomfort” of wearing safety clothing with the pain of being burnt alive. I looked up the price of this DVD and its expensive (several hundred dollars) so its not something you’re likely to buy for home use but if you get a chance to watch it or get your place of work or Union to buy a copy, please do so. I bet it will change the way you think about staying safe.
I just want to make two final points here. Firstly, there is a lot of hysteria about the “excesses” of Health & Safety regulations but a lot of it is total myth. Read more about this here. Secondly, if we weren’t so keen to sue each other and claim everything on insurance/compensation there would be a lot less of the “this cup of hot coffee is hot” nonsense and the Health & Safety people could concentrate more on preventing deaths and injuries.
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