Wear Your Hard Hats

[Jim Koepke]

If you work construction, demolition or any other job where others are working above wear a safety hat.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2014/11/man_dies_in_freak_accident_at_jersey_city_construc tion_site.html

jtk

[glenn bradley]

What a way to go. Some of my co-workers make a fuss over wearing their gear when going on building sites on campus. The university atmosphere tends to make folks overly relaxed about almost everything. My boots, gloves, glasses, hat and vest are right by the door. We don't go often but, I don't want to contribute to the statistics.

[David Weaver]

When I worked in a cabinet factory, I used to complain about the requirement to wear safety glasses and steel toes even in warehouse buildings where there was no machinery and nothing but pulling stock.

And then one day, I was driving the "door truck" back and forth between the finishing area and the door storage building, and I forgot to lift the ramp that goes between the dock and the truck and low and behold, I pulled a large steel door cart (something that probably weighed between half a ton and a ton off the truck and the wheels dropped right into the gap between the truck and the dock, leaving the angle steel frame of the cart literally landing on my toe and pinning me to the area by my steel toed boot!! I literally couldn't move, I was pinned by the toe.

Not as severe as this example, but I probably would've had my toes broken when that cart dropped if I wasn't wearing steel toed boots. And I would've had a lost time event, and at the time there hadn't been a lost-time event for 450 days or so in a place with 500 employees. I wouldn't have wanted it to be me.

I don't always love safety stuff, but when you're at work and you never know what could occur, it's better to just follow the rules and not become a news story or a work joke (with broken toes, I would've just been the butt of a work joke).

[Lee Schierer]

Accidents never take a day off. When I was working around construction I always wore safety shoes, safety glasses, a hard hat and had my ear protection with me. You also had to have a safety harness and tie off any time you were working 6 feet or more above the floor. No exceptions were allowed and you would be asked to leave the job site for any violation. We worked for over 1-1/2 years with up to 400 people on site on some days with no lost time accidents. We did send a few people home for violations.

[DOUG ANGEL]

Safety equipment can be annoying, but it sure beats pain. Situational awareness also saves injuries, have you ever had someone move a stand or ladder without telling you?