What In The Wide Wide World Of Sports????

[Puddlejumper]

Ironically, I sat through a 2-day Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) class last week. Think of it as the OSHA that is specific to mining activities. The interesting part is when they went over ever mine related fatality in the USA so far this year (I think it was 80 something thus far). Several gruesome fatalities occurred because people neglected to lock out a piece of machinery they were working in, and another worker came by and switched it on. These machines were usually the type that grind rock up . But the stupidest one was perhaps the guy who climbed up a ladder to fix a piece of pipe on a roof without a harness, slipped, and fell 50 feet to his death. This accident occurred about one hour after the company had a mandatory safety meeting about - wearing a safety harness when working in high places. As the miners in the class told me - conforming to the safety measures is cheaper than the insurance increase, the million dollar haul truck you have to replace because it rolled on an unstable roadway, or the 2 days downtime while you pick human body parts out of your conveyor.

In some cases it sure does make sense and I agree with the above. But what about forcing combat-ready Marines to wear their seat belts while traveling in Humvees in enemy territory? There is no way you can be "combat ready" and have your seat belt on. (I don't think this has happened yet, but I had the unpleasant experience of conversing with a bureaucrat working on this very subject several months ago)

Another, making firefighters keep their helmets and air packs in a compartment in the back of the fire engine? This is to eliminate the possibility of the firefighters putting these items on while en route and possibly injuring themselves if they are in a crash. It also will make response times longer when someone is trapped in a burning house because the firefighters will not be fully ready when they arrive on the scene of the fire. We put our lives on the line to help others because we choose to, STOP TRYING TO TELL US WHAT IS SAFE AND WHAT IS NOT, IT IS OUR SPECIALTY TO GO INTO UNSAFE ENVIRONMENTS, and to DO IT QUICKLY.

Sorry guys, OSHA and NFPA are 2 organizations that get me worked up. I'll get off my rant now.