Irony

I looked out over the crowd, sixty or so factory workers. They were staring at me, waiting for me to begin my presentation. I only had to speak for  fifteen minutes or so, as we had already used up another twenty minutes doing some master stream evolutions.

It was Safety Week at the rubber dog turd factory and we had been asked to give a presentation on disaster preparedness. It was the usual presentation covering earthquake and wildfire preparedness, survival and eascape plans.

I used a pamphlet as an outline, the same one that we handed out at the end of the presentation.  Some good information was presented, although I know most of the attendees will do little if anything to prepare for a disaster.If I can just get them to think about preparation and go out and get a flashlight and a couple of cases of water, I will view it as a success.

Before closing, I commented to the crowd about how the Big Rubber Dog Turd Company appeared to be committed to safety as we rarely went there on accident related calls. I further commented about how their forklift training program must be working as we never go there for forklift accidents. They have a bunch of forklifts bustling about the place, moving pallets of rubber turds and the raw materials needed to manufacture them.

I then closed, answered some questions and we left the plant.

We made it about one mile own the road before we were dispatched to the rubber dog turd factory for a fall victim. We went back to the plant and found plant medical services splinting a possible fractured arm . The patient was a contractor who screwed up, fell and broke his arm. Obviously, this patient hadn't been attending safety meetings.

Three shifts later, we received another call for medical aid at Rubber Dog Turd Inc. This was supposed to be for a fall victim with a foot injury. It was a foot injury alright, but it was quite mangled as it was the result of two forklifts colliding. This woman's foot had been caught between the two forklifts and had been crushed as a result. It was a rather gruesome interesting injury and would have made a great photo if it weren't for the HIPPA thing.

What are the odds of that? We hadn't been to the plant for an accident in a year or so, then within days of me commending them on their safety practices, two accidents occur, one of which was very serious.

Next time I have to speak to these people, I am not going to pay them any compliments. I am not going to mention anything about train derailments or plane crashes either.

Thanks for reading,
Schmoe