Near Misses. Why?

these are our lines they represent our service the telephone ready for anyone to use anywhere at any time day or night to achieve that service thousands of us work millions of hours a year and we work safely all kinds of work all kinds of conditions all kinds of people we work hard to make every job and every assignment a safe one we're proud of our leadership and safety and we're proud of the many significant Awards we've received but even with such a fine record we do occasionally have accidents and when we do accident reports are duly made out I've been going through them reading about serious injuries broken bones sometimes even deaths and thinking about what is not in these reports pain and suffering kids who missed their dads wives who had to carry all the family burdens alone but I've also found happier stories in each one a twist of fate turned mishaps into incidents instead of serious accidents near misses we call them now many of these reports are complete with diagrams and photographs to tell the story one of them involved a splicer who uh but let's hear about it in the splice his own words it happened right here in this street my partner and I were assigned to cut out a cable bridge in a manhole we parked our truck at the curb and set up warning flags and signs we tried to lift the cover but it was stuck in the frame it had rained during the night then it got very cold and the rain froze in the crack first I used a chisel on the ice but it was slow work so I decided to try something else I figured the Aslin torch would thaw out the cover in a hurry Joe tried to stop me he told me it wouldn't be safe use a torch right at the manhole but I went ahead anyhow and he stood back by the truck the ice melted fast without realizing what it meant I heard kind of a hissing sound then all of a sudden boom up went the manhole cover about 20 ft up in the air almost cutting the power wires but the cover didn't hit me because I landed over by the curb with a couple of small Burns that's all we found out that gas had seeped into the manhole and also when it exploded the flame Shot Through The Underground ducks to the next manhole 175 ft away a lot of bricks were torn up there and the frame and its cover were turned completely upside down luckily nobody was near it Joe certainly was right why hadn't I listened to him why that's what we've been trying to find out because when we know why we can get to the causes and stop these things now let's hear a central office Man story I had to move this ladder out of the way to get to one of our equipment frames somebody had left the soldering iron in the H holder that's fastened to one of the ladder St steps but he didn't put it where it belonged all the way in naturally I didn't think to look at it as I pushed the ladder the iron came out of the holder and glanced off my head luckily all I got was a scratch on my face it could have stuck in my head instead of in the floor but why should it have happened at all why didn't the man who used the iron know that careless work habits are always dangerous work habits here's another near miss it happened at night but we wanted pictures that showed how it happened so we set it up again in daylight I was working in the tent it was raining a little and my partner was down in the hole the flood light and all the warning flashers were on a car plowed into the tent about 3:00 a.m. it didn't hit me but I got a couple of bumps nothing serious from equipment that was knocked into the the tent my guardian angel must have been awake and working too why do some nighttime manhole jobs act like magnets that attract cars as long as they do you'd better help your guardian angel one way is to park your truck in front of the manhole so that it blocks the way you'll be protected while you unload and reload the truck and while you work also use adequate warning devices such as cones flashes and barricades and set them out well ahead as much as 500 ft ahead on highways then if you hear them being hit you'll have a few seconds warning before the car reaches you one thing I found out from the reports it isn't always enough to just follow the rules in planning you have to look at each situation and try to figure out how an accident could happen the next mishap a near Miss in a pole shows what I mean not long ago I went up a pole to place a drop wire 23 ft up before climbing the pole I had used the ladder to put the span clamp on the Strand and left the ladder against the bottom of the pole when I got ready to come down my right Gap was in solid and the left one up a little higher the pole leaned a little to one side just as I unhooked my safety strap I swayed around because of the angle of the pole my climbers cut out and down I went 23 ft my left knee Hit the Dirt I guess I would have broken it if I'd hit that concrete sidewalk my right knee hit the ladder but the only injury I got was a few splinters in my arms I was sure lucky fortunately Falls are not always serious although some telephone people have been badly injured by them on the other hand electric shocks are particularly dangerous regardless of voltage on this Power Line crossing job I saw to it as I always do that the boys check their rubber gloves before starting the job this particular assignment was to place a few spans of iron wire at one spot a 220 volt power service crossed under our line of course we had to keep our new wire tight while pulling it in so it wouldn't sag down onto the power line George pulled the handline he'd placed over the crossarm Tom held the Reel so that the wire wouldn't sag but somehow it did sag maybe the Rope got hung up on the cross arm I don't know what did it but do you know what I did I rushed over and grabbed the wire with my bare hands I got two shocks one was from the electric power and the other shock was mental the realization that in a second I could forget all I knew about safety why are years of experience forgotten in a moment why don't we hold off for just a second to think what will make us remember what we know here's a lineman who will probably remember his near Miss for a long time we had placed cable on a new Pole Line and we were wrecking the old open wire line I was dropping the dead wires from the cross arms here was my downfall a rotten stub I should have known cuz that old Pole Line had been in a long time when I untied the last wire yep you guessed it I rode her down had to I was strapped on up at the crossarm all I could think of coming down was no no I landed in mud and that saved me then I thought never again without a test you know there's one thing about near misss they don't amount to much as long as they're misses but what about the future and happiness of those dependent on you do you have the right to gamble them against the small effort required to do the job safely do you ever climb a ladder either on the job or off I do the wooden area ladder on this cable truck made a near Miss for me one time for two of us in fact we put up the ladder to do some work at this pole after I got up there I discovered I didn't have any pliers with me and Charlie brought them up just after he handed them to me the ladder broke luckily both of us were able to grab the pole we came down like a couple of firemen we were more scared than hurt and believe me it wasn't funny the soundness or unsoundness of a ladder or other tools can sometimes be the responsibility of a number of people and that brings up an important point safety is everybody's business my near Miss was my own fault I was trying to make time on my truck one night on a narrow Black Top Road actually I was overdriving my headlights if it had been daytime I would have seen the humps in the road on one of the humps the truck felt like it took off and came down at an angle swaying a little ston wall bridge was waiting for me in the dark the truck hit the bridge and the body was torn completely off it landed out in the field I was able to get out without help and walk away got a broken thumb and a couple of scratches miracles do happen but you can't count on them the truth is that every near Miss can just as well be an accident that involves Serious injury why then don't we eliminate these near misses that happen day after day both on and off the job that involve those of you who work outside and inside women as well as men I use these stairs every day several times a day in fact so I didn't realize they could be so dangerous well this day I was on my way way out of the building I had a couple of things on my mind one was Jane's story about her date the other was my car keys they're never at the top of my bag or at the bottom either always Tangled Up or hiding somewhere the sign I'd always thought that was for old people who needed it this is the way I finished that little trip trip is right why I didn't break any bones or sprain my back I'll never know accident charts and reports are all right as far as they go but what about the unreported near misses that happen every day we should all be concerned about them because it's a proven fact that the more near misses we have the closer we are to Serious injury now one thing will help careful attention to the work in progress this will prevent many near missing perhaps it would have prevented this one our crew was adding several spans of new circuit to some joint use Poes carrying 7200 volts about 8 to 10 ft above our cross arms the wire reels were on a trailer and the trailer was grounded to a pole guy I'm glad to say the man tending the reels had his rubber gloves on Harry and I had the job of passing the pulling ropes over the cross arms we didn't have rubber gloves on under our leather gloves because we weren't handling bare wires these boys were doing the pulling after they passed the fourth pole they were pulling over 1,600 ft of wire tough job so we thought we'd help them out somewhere behind us the wires must have got caught on the barbwire fence or some branches then let go and flipped up into the power line we got a jol that gave us each a little burn on one foot the kind of hot foot that's right unfriendly if it hadn't been for the grounded reels that must have drained off most of the current we could have been killed why do people do things they're not supposed to do those men had their assignments but their impulse to help cause them to risk their lives needlessly unfortunately some telephone people have taken risks that were fool Hardy I was riding in a cable car 18 ft above the ground taking off the Rings ahead of a cable lashing machine when lunchtime came I was left halfway between poles instead of going to the next pole and climbing down I took off my safety strap so as to slide down it and drop to the ground I thought I had it snapped snug on the Strand but it hadn't snapped clear on then I took the cable car straps out of the d-rings I grabbed the safety strap and lifted my feet up so as to slide back out of the car the strap hook came loose and down I went the whole 18 ft the cable car with me when I hit the ground that knocked the wind out of me along with any more fool ideas like that one hurt no but one hip was a little sore for a few days in every mishap luck plays an important part why then do so many of this G amble on the outcome when danger loads the dice we can be safe only by recognizing danger and avoiding it I didn't it happened in this railroad yard we were making repairs on a cable in this excavation close to the tracks trains came by quite often and we were careful a switch engine was standing nearby but we understood it was out of service we had just just about finished the job when I reached for a roll of muslin lying near the track the switch engine was suddenly right there and hit me on the head but it was just a light tap with a small scratch lucky people all of them good people too capable experienced valuable there are some who take their n misses lightly or even brag about them others feel foolish or ashamed every one of them says I won't go through that again you can't always be lucky that's why over and over again you see and hear this no job is so important and no service is so urgent that we cannot take time to perform our work safely you've seen 12 mishaps I could tell you about another one it was not a near Miss I'm reminded of it every day and I will be reminded of it every day for the rest of my life caller number 13 if you want to it was my number it need not have happened to me why should it happen to you why why why why [Music] why