Welcome to the September Edition of Wheels in Motion
September is a month of Anniversaries & Birthdays. My Son, Daughter, Sister, Brother in Laws, Sister in Laws & Nephew's Birthdays are in September. So is the Anniversary of my accident! How far would you go for Safety? Safety Month is Here
Normally we
associate anniversaries with happy events, a wedding, a graduation, a milestone etc. But we also have not so happy anniversaries….. The anniversary of someone getting hurt or killed.
Recently I reached an anniversary that I didn’t celebrate. The 23rd of September is a date that I will never forget. It’s the day that I broke my back and severely crushed my spinal cord.
As time passes you’d think that it would not mean as much or be a significant day in my year, but in actual fact the longer it goes since my injury the worse it gets. This year I found myself reflecting on the "What if it hadn’t happened" or "If only I could still walk".
Don’t get me wrong I’ve been able to live my life since I got hurt, sure there are many things that I can’t do but all in all I’ve got back on track.
But I can’t help but think about the missed opportunities, unfulfilled dreams and generally where I’d be now if my accident had not happened.
So I just want to ask you all to think about how getting hurt would change your life. The physical, mental, lifestyle, career, family, relationship changes that an injury or fatality would bring to not just you but to many other people around you.
Recently I was invited to share my story with NRW employees in WA. I was speaking to the site manager and he explained that they were pulling everyone off the job for a safety meeting with a variety of different speakers.
It
was explained to me that they would only need me for about 60 minutes. And we confirmed the dates and made the travel arrangements.
So I live in the Yarra Valley in Melbourne, about an hour from the airport. Then I fly from Melbourne to Perth 3406km, then I spend a night in Perth and the next morning catch a 5AM (Yuck) flight up to Paraburdoo in WA 1529km away. I then pick up a hire car and attach my hand controls and drive another 102km to the site that I was working at.
I participated in a great safety day and shared my message and spoke to many people during the day. But
then I had to drive back to Paraburdoo airport to fly back to Perth before overnighting and then flying back to Melbourne and driving home.
Here's the figures:
4 hours in the car
11 hours in the air (approx)
10,074km travelled
2 nights in hotels
1 safety presentation for 60 minutes
53 hours from the time I left home to the time I drove back in the driveway
Now that's a huge amount of travel and time to deliver my story to this site. Not to mention the cost involved in pulling nearly 100 people off the job for a few hours.
Worth it?.......
Absolutely, if the information shared this day stops even one person from getting hurt, or encourages one person to get some help for mental health issues it is definitely worth it and I’d happily do it again. Well Done NRW!!
It’s happening again!
Ok I’m going to have a little rant here, as recently as last week we received phone calls requesting a speaker for Safety Month in October.
The reason this annoys me is that it makes me think that "Safety" is a last minute thing! Do these companies do anything safety related during the rest of the year? Or do they just leave it until September and think "Oh we better do something for safety month".
The problem we have here is that many of our speakers are booked out months in advance, especially during safety month so it’s hard for us to try to fit them in.
C’mon Safety Dudes….. I’m sure production is scheduled many months in advance, why can’t you plan your safety year months in advance.
So finishing my Rant off we are 3 months out from
Christmas, if you want a safety speaker in the High Risk period leading up to this time then call us now to make a booking.
