One of my hobbies is building furniture for the house.  In a momentary lack of anything resembling intelligence this week, I attempted to cut off one of my fingers with the router.  Since I was only half successful, I spent the next six hours at the hospital.  That gave me a lot of time to think about was how stupid it was. 

The point of this whole story is that as hard as we teach and preach safety, it only takes a moments lapse to change everything.  

For several years, I had been talking with my clients about reducing their risk and cutting costs, and the unthinkable happened to me.  For businesses, safety training and OSHA compliance are important.  But it doesn't make a difference if, without thinking, you stick your finger in a power tool without unplugging it first.  Lock out / tag out is the method of insuring that a power tool cannot be plugged in while it is being serviced.  Some people think it is not necessary when you are the only person in the room.  Tell that to my finger.  

Sometimes when we think about claims, we only think about the medical costs.  We forget to include lack of productivity, increase in future insurance costs and how it effects the people who work around you.  Pain, don't forget the pain.  If there was a moral to all this, it would be that we need to constantly remind our employees about safety.  Have a safety culture.

My new motto this week is "Stupid Hurts, Think Safety."

P.S. When the nurse asked me how I did it, I told her that I cut it with the router.  She gave me a puzzled look and said, "the internet router?" 

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