Safety First

Today I had my annual safety training for work, so now I'm all safe-d up until next year. The class itself was separated into two sections. One section covered the company regulations toward various safety and environmental situations, including what permits to fill out, chemical treatment and incident contact requirements. All of this information was presented in the form of a game, so it was at least bearable to sit through even when I couldn't answer 80% of the questions asked. The other section pertained to physical injuries where we watched a safety video that covered all types of medical concerns, followed by a CPR training session. I particularly enjoyed the videos, because they would establish between two or more characters and then proceed to suddenly interject an injured individual.

I especially enjoyed the situation where a boss was talking to an employee while walking, and their conversation established that she, the employee, had finally caught up to date on some projects she was working on. Okay, we’ve established a relationship here and we’ve filled in some background information, so how does the plot continue? Well, they hear a yell and literally they open a door next to them and to find a man covered in blood. What? Why all the context and build-up just so they could open a door to reveal an injured person? It was all very random, and I had to really watch myself to not openly laugh at the traumatic situations that were (eventually) being depicted.

But it must have been fate that I took my training class today, as I aided in preventing an accident. I was meeting my father for lunch, and when I didn’t see him as I arrived at the restaurant I gave him a quick call (since I was on a tight schedule with this training). I let it ring twice before I noticed his car at the stoplight in the distance so I quickly hung up and waited as he came around. Well I couldn’t see it from where I was standing, but I called right when he got the green arrow. He hesitated in turning when the light changed because he was clamoring for his phone, which was helpful since at that moment a truck blatantly ran the red light from the opposite direction. If I hadn’t called at that moment, he might have been clipped by the truck and then I really would have to use that safety training. So being a good reliability engineer, I helped prevent an incident and was able to enjoy a nice lunch with my father.