Winter vs Bald Tires.

How are those tires looking for winter? Are they full of tread or are they bald. Are they inflated properly, or do they look like doughnuts on the car? There are hundreds of accidents every winter due to the lack of concern about one's tires. The car still has to steer. Keep those front tires inflated properly and make sure that the tread is good on them, especially if you have front wheel drive.You do not want to be caught out on the expressway at night with a flat tire now do you? Be safe. Know your vehicle. Keep it properly maintained.This is ole "Dangerous Dale" saying: Safety rides with all year long.

Hammered on the Holidays?

Office Parties. Union Member Get-togethers down at the Local Union Hall. Seeing old friends in town and getting together for just one cold one.Spiking the egg nog at Grandmas. Every year at this time the festive mood silently creeps up and lets the ole "drinkin gremlin" in. He's the one that whispers in your ear; "Go ahead, it's the holidays. What better time to take a little nip of the flask"? You have to be careful. Real careful. It does not take much to get over the legal limit as far as the law is concerned. Get somebody else to drive. Walk to where you are going if possible. Be safe. Enjoy the holidays. Live to see 2011. Your family will thank you for it. This is ole "Dangerous Dale" saying; "Safety follows you everywhere you go".Be sure to use it".

Christmas Time-Safety Time?

Christmas lights are great to look at. Fun to put up.Always wear gloves when installing them for three reasons: One, lead from wiring gets into skin. Two, shock from open sockets. Three, broken light fragments could cut.

Ornaments break. Hooks fall to the floor and children and pets get them and swallow them.

Ladder safety putting up lights?

This is ole "Dangerous Dale" saying have a merry, not so scary Christmas!

It's That Time of Year:

It's that time of year again: Thanksgiving Wine,Christmas Parties, New Years Parties.and festive living and get togethers. Good times for sure. Safety comes rushing out of the vacuum of life when at this time of the year,accidents of all kinds rear their ugly heads: Automobile accidents, DUIs, Attempted suicides,Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, Alcohol Poisoning, and injuries of all sorts caused by drinking and trying to act like Superman when you lose control. Of all times of the year, this is the time to think about safety and how it will affect your life and the ones around you.My Father died on Christmas Day, 1968. I was 17 years old. Although he died from Lung Cancer which was caused by 40 years of smoking cigarettes, the effects of his death at 49 years old can still be felt today.Be safe, use good judgement, and above all do not drink and drive. It is way too risky.This is ole Dangerous Dale saying: Be on guard!

Over The Line?

Have you noticed while driving lately that a lot of drivers are weaving over the center line while coming at you? They are either talking on the cell phone, texting, or just not paying attention to what they are looking at. What's up with that? I see it just about everyday now as I drive around town. Then it should come as no surprise to anyone that the accidents that we see on T.V. are getting more "grizzly".
More speed, more impact, roll overs, flips, T-bones, head-ons, and people going the wrong way on freeways? What's up with these? Distractions at the wheel are at an all time high. Sleep deprivation is starting to rank as the number 1 cause of a lot of bad accidents, not drunk driving. Are we as a society getting so relaxed behind the wheel that we are just dozing off while going 65 mpg? Split seconds can change the future of your life if you are not careful. Be alert, be safe, pay attention. This is ole "Dangerous Dale" saying danger never takes a day off.

PPEs

Hard Hats, Steel Toed Work Shoes, Cut Resistant Gloves, Hearing Protection, Safety Goggles,Fall Protection Harness, Arc Flash Gloves, Welding Helmet,Respirator,Trench Box, Hearing Protection, Cr-6 Tests, Lock Out/Tag Out / Test Procedures, Confined Space Program,Air Quality Studies, Sound Curtains, Lifting Devices, Ergonomic Controls,Engineering Controls,Voltage Testing Meters,Interlock Safety Devices, Dock Lock Systems, Blue Flag Procedures,Safety Check Lists,Dust Audits,Fire Safety,Fire Drills,Evacuation Procedures,Tornado Drills,Machine Guarding, Crane Safety, enforcement,and the list goes on and on.Each one of these terms represents an injury or probably a death in the OSHA 1910 CFR Standards for Industry Book. Just think, somebody had to give their own blood before a regulation was finally made to stop this from happening to employees in the workplace.We were not the ones. Somebody went before us to pave the way for safety to get better in this country.To think that the Hoover Dam had many men fall into the concrete while being poured only to have another man take their place all because the job had to continue while the trucks kept pouring in to dump more concrete.The next time that a pesky, hot, safety device that you have to wear starts bugging you, remember that they could have used these devices and programs back in 1940. Lives would have been saved and limbs spared.Ole "Dangerous Dale" saying: be safe!

Proactive vs Reactive?

(1).Proactive: Manhole cover missing. Concerned citizen sees it, gets someone to correct it; problem solved. (1a.)Reactive: Car falls into an open manhole. Somebody sees it and pits a metal plate over it. City has a number of council meetings to determine when and how much it will cost to fix this problem permanently. Unfortunately, during this time another car hits the metal plate, moving it off of the open manhole, and another car falls into it.

(2). Proactive: Airport decides to xray and scan all packages and luggage one mile from the airport before loading them into an airplane in case of terrorism. (2a.)Reactive: Packages and luggage keep coming into the airport where all of the people are and if something is wrong with them, it's too late.

(3). Proactive: Injuries caused in the workplace are investigated, corrected, and then "dummy-proofed" so that they can "never" happen again. (3a.) Reactive: Injuries keep happening in the workplace because management, employee comittees,costs, and attitudes get in the way of mandating that (3). Proactive be implemented.

It Will Never Happen To Me!

I'm not going to say where I was at or who I was talking to yesterday but this comes up all of the time. Tornado safety? Humbug! We've had these tornado drills every year for years and it is the same ole thing. Head for shelter. Wait 15 minutes. Then go back to work. Nothing has ever happened to us. What's the big deal? Then my boss starts hasseling me because he thinks that I'm wasting time. I've decided not to elaborate on this subject. Instead, I'll let history tell the story. Find an old newspaper from April 9th, 1999 and read about the F4 Tornado that tore through Blue Ash, Ohio. Look it up on Google or in a Cincinnati newspaper archives. See if you can find out about the store manager going to work at 5 a.m. that morning on his way to open up a Bob Evans Resturant. Find out about the couple living across from the high school, in the path of the tornado, who either didn't hear the sirens or ignored the sirens,(on the roof of the school across the street). Don't tell me it can't happen to you because it can. Story after story appears about people who were out driving in this area and either were not listening to their car radios or just thought that: "It couldn't happen to them". I'm not making fun of these folks. It is just sad that people still do not take tornados seriously in this country.

Will It Ever Change?

The Construction Industry. Will it ever change? Will safety ever become number 1 with it's owners. I hear stories everyday.No trench boxes being used. Why? It takes too long. Or, we will not make as much money using these. Too slow. Fall protection? I don't need it,I've done this for years. Hard hats? Na! Too hot. Too bothersome.

Garage Shop

If you are like most of us ex shop guys then chances are you have what I call a home "garage shop". You know, grinding wheel. Dremmel tool. Cordless drill. Maybe even a Sawsall. And all of the usual yard tools like the riding mower, leaf blower, and weed eater, lawn edger, and shop vacuum cleaner, power washer, or even an air compressor. Are you starting to see where I'm coming from? Yes? No? Then you should also have these handy little items to go along with the above mentioned man toys: Safety Glasses, Work Gloves, Googles, Cut Resistant Gloves, A First Aid Kit, and my favorite; cold water. Yes cold water for hydration, and cold water for a possible burn, scrape, or eye wash. Garage Shops are great to have but they pose the same identical safety threat that the work shop poses. Only there, they have rules but at home they have to be imbedded in your thought process or we never think of them. Just a thought from ole "Dangerous Dale". Don't be upset with me, just share one of those unique, only you can tell it, stories about the time you got hung up in the (here is where you insert the tool) because you forgot to(here is where you insert the event) and ended up(here is where you insert what body part got injured).:)

Motorcycles or Donor-cycles?

Every week for the last month on the local news I have seen horrible motorcycle accidents. Some where the rider "lost control". Some were from the rider being hit as a car ran through a traffic light. And some were from a rider being hit by a car crossing the double yellow line. I have asked everyone that I have come in contact with who rides a motorcycle if they have ever dumped their motorcycle, been hit by a car on their motorcycle,lost control of their motorcycle, or hit a pothole, crack in the road, skidded on gravel, or been hit by a bird, bug, rock, tree limb, or anything else when riding their motorcycle and they have all answered yes. My good friend Ron Anderson rode a motorcycle for 25 years and said that they were as safe as a car until one day a car pulled out in front of him as he was going 40 miles an hour and it was too late for him to stop. He flew over the handlebars and onto the pavement. No helmet, no leather, no warning. Ron never rode a motorcycle again. Be careful out there riders. Be aware of your surroundings. Danger is out there. This is ole "Dangerous Dale" saying all accidents are preventable.

They Scratch Their Heads and Wonder......

Miners being trapped under ground. You hear about it all of the time. I just have one question; Does the mine cave in on both sides of the miners at the same time? Or does it only cave in on one side of the miners? If there was an entrance to the mine and an exit out if the mine, wouldn't it increase the chances of the miners being able to get out safely? I read that in Canada that they do just that. An entrance and an exit. The reason that US Mining companies do not do this is because it costs too much money$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. So then safety is about bottom line, not being safe right? Safety is political also, not being safe. It's about who's in charge, not about being safe. It's about deadlines, time frames, and cost cutting and not really safety now isn't it? Companies say that safety is number 1 but they don't mean it. If they meant it, they would not take chances like they do with their workers safety. They would not cut costs like they do when the economy goes south now would they? And safety is no doubt the first thing that gets cut when the bottom line is threatened. If only the ones who make the decisions about safety would think of their workers as their children, grand children, wives, mothers, brothers, or sisters, then safety would become number 1. This ole "Dangerous Dale" crying out.

Where's Daddy?

Where's Daddy?, is a chilling question asked by a five year old when quitting time has long since past and Dad has not come home yet. The phone rings. Your heart jumps in your chest and the anguish on Mothers face goes ashen."What, she screams"? "He did what"? You never forget that day for the rest of your life. The day that Daddy didn't come home! All over this country, on any given day, at any given time, sombody's Daddy doesn't come home from work. It happens all of the time. A fall. A crush. An electrocution. A smothering. An entrapment. A poisoning. A cave-in. You would think that we live in an uncivilized country but we don't. We live in the U.S.A. where we have the best food, clothing, housing, medical facilities, and some of the most modern machinery that was ever invented in the history of the world. Why then does this kind of thing keep happening? Why do workers get killed on the job? Because we still take chances don't we? We still walk on that narrow plank high above the construction site don't we? We still change wall recepticles live because we are so careful don't we? We still take that short cut to unjam that machine because it takes too long to stop it and unjam it safely don't we? Daddy, make sure you come home tonight. Somebody is counting on you.

I've Always done it that way.

You know, when I cut the grass on my riding mower, sometimes I take my Grandson for a ride around the yard, yea, I've always done it that way! There's no sense in getting down off of the ladder while I'm cleaning out the gutters, I'll just scoot it over by jumping it from up here, yea, I've always done it that way! Don't be a wuss, just change the flat. That jack won't slip on this beveled highway, Yea, I've always done it that way! Sound familiar? We do and say these things all of the time, especially at home. Can you imagine carrying these kinds of habits into the place at which we work around moving machinery? Is it really worth it to gamble on that finger? Does that eye mean so little to us that we will not even take the time to put on safety glasses? Our families think so. Our insurance companies think so. Even, yes, even our employers think so or they would not have safety committees, or programs, or processes. Take time to be safe. Keep everything that God gave you intact. Your livelihood, longevity, and life depend on it. This is ole "Dangerous Dale" saying: All accidents are preventable.

How safe is safe?

Standing on a kitchen chair to change a light bulb...How safe is safe? Not wearing hearing protection while on the riding mower...How safe is safe? Using a screw driver as a chisel while banging on the end of it with a hammer...How safe is safe? Using a pocket knife to pry, unscrew, or chip away at something...How safe is safe? We do these things all of the time but never think a thing of it. By the time we get to work we take this unsafe behaviour to an industrial level. We take short cuts. We reach into moving machinery to unjam it. You can perform a task the wrong way 30 times and get away without getting hurt. After this, your on your own. How safe is safe?
Safe is always coming home from work that day. Safe is having all of your fingers and toes so that you can play with the kids at night. And safe is always being there to provide for your family. Safe is always doing the task the right way, no matter who is looking. How safe is safe?

Top Four Things That OSHA Is Looking 4, 2010

Combustible Dust
Record Keeping
CR-6 Testing
Stimulus Money Trail

What not to do!

Don't take that chance. 30 times of doing a task the wrong way can be done sometimes until the 31rst time. Then the odds of getting hurt increase significantly. Is it worth that finger? Is it worth that eye? Will it be the last time that you perform that task at all? I have worked around machinery for years. I have used short cuts. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. I'm talking to you factory worker. I'm talking to you window washer. And you, railroad worker. How about you, power line repairman? Tree Trimmer, are you hearing me? I do not want any of you to get hurt. Not even one band aid. Please! "Dangerous Dale"