Wheels in Motion June 2018 - Introducing Michael Weston

I’d like to introduce you to Michael Weston, Michael is joining the CNBSafe Safety Speaker team to share his story.

Michael has no obvious injury, he can walk and he has all his limbs, however Michael has to live with an Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) caused by stress and mental fatigue.

Working in heavy industry for most of his life Michael had made it to a leadership position, he was responsible for the safety and production tasks of not only himself but of others.

An extra hour here or there led to often long 14-16 hour days, days off were spent catching up on work and answering calls from the workplace.

Something had to give, and for Michael it was his body, he collapsed after leaving for work one day and was found unconscious and not breathing.

An initial diagnosis of exhaustion led to a few weeks recovering and then it was back to work!

But something was not right, Michael knew it. Anxiety, memory lapses, not feeling good.

Michael shares his story to show others that there are more than physical dangers in our workplaces, many of us push ourselves beyond the limits.

Invite Michael to your workplace to discuss the issues that led to his incident, and some of the things that you can do to make sure that none of your people push it too far.

Michael shares his story through a presentation called 'Head Above Water'

Who’s Fault is This?

So here’s a question for the safety people, recently I was out at a shopping centre and a van pulled into the wheelchair park next to me.

I sat and watched as the driver got out and lifted the tailgate with some difficulty, she then reached over and grabbed a stick that was in the van and propped the tailgate open with it.

The driver then started to unload a passenger in a wheelchair using a hoist all the time while being under the tailgate held up by a stick.

So my question to you all is who do you think is at fault here?

The driver for using a piece of equipment that is obviously faulty, if they have gone to the trouble to make a stick that holds the tailgate open it has obviously been like this for a while

The company for failing to maintain their vehicles to a safe standard

The passenger for agreeing to be carried in a vehicle that is not safe and could cause an injury if the tailgate dropped

Me… For observing this act and allowing it to proceed

I’d like to know your thoughts on this one, send me an email at woody@cnbsafe.com.au and for those of you who do I will let you know what action I took.

Let's keep the momentum happening!

Ok I’m going to give our safety speakers a plug here, this month we have visited workplaces all over Australia. As part of our service we ask for feedback on our speakers, it helps us to ensure that the information we share is relevant and up to date.

We have received some really great feedback saying that our stories are great and the best 'Safety' message that some people have ever heard or seen.

So let’s keep it going, if you have had a safety speaker share their story, then put in place a plan to follow it up with another one!

It might be 3 or 6 or 12 months later but if you have something that "Works" then keep it going.

We are happy to help you plan a series of visits and can do the organising for you.

Give Vanessa a call on 03 9730 2900 or email at vanessa@cnbsafe.com.au to arrange your speaker plan.