The benefits of a safe workplace are many and far reaching. To begin with, it provides a safe environment for workers to achieve success. It also prevents accidents. When an on-the-job accident occurs, it does more than just injure the worker who was involved. It affects their families, friends, businesses, and communities.
Gary Norland, featured in Safe Electricity’s “Teach Learn Care TLC” campaign, “Safety on the Line,” suffered an electrical accident that had intense and long lasting effects on his family, friends, and his community. He was injured when he came into contact with power lines that he thought were dead, but they were charged with thousands of volts of electricity. He spent four months in the burn unit at the hospital, in excruciating pain daily. Gary has had so many surgeries that he and his family have lost count, but they know that he has had more than 50 of them.
Gary wants you to learn from his experience. He has partnered with the Safe Electricity program to offer these tips for on-the-job safety:
- Do your own safety testing, and do so regularly.
- It is okay to ask questions and make sure you understand a job completely before beginning it. Do not sign off on or begin jobs you do not understand because you think someone else knows what is going on.
- Protective equipment is there for a good reason, so put it to good use.
- Do not take shortcuts. They will eventually catch up with you. Even small shortcuts can add up to a big accident.
- Remember, the choices you make can have huge consequences that change not only your life, but also the lives of everyone around you forever.
- Stay focused on the job at hand.
- The safety measures you take could help keep another person stay safe later on.
- Safety procedures may be boring and repetitive, but they are absolutely essential.
For more information on electrical safety and to see a video of Gary’s story, visit SafeElectricity.org.
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