Safety words of wisdom

[KoreaScouter 13]

Applicable to Scouts, Scouters, and Scouting, adapted in part from military safety lessons learned. It's long, but you'll probably find something you like.

 

KS

______________________________________________________________

 

Some safety words of wisdom

 

Take a minute to read the G2SS section, and the rules that apply to the activity youre planning. Sometimes they aim at the lowest common denominator, but they aren't casting aspersions on your I.Q. or your common sense. They keep us from learning the hard way. And if you're tempted to ignore them, take an additional minute to consider how it will look when someone replays the video

Next time you're tempted to "repair" something with a single layer of electrical tape, ask yourself how the damage got there in the first place. At least use duct tape.

Just kidding.

 

It says something when you search the internet for skateboard slang, and of the 14 words on the very first site you visit, seven have to do with falling and crashing. Kinda lets you know what to anticipate when you take up the sport.

 

Every major labor-saving device meant to help us subdue the great outdoors seems to offer yet another opportunity to slice, dice, chop or puree parts of our anatomy. For example, the ability of the common lawn mower to reduce the number of little piggies available for such tasks as going to market and having roast beef has been well-documented. Be careful with anything that has moving parts.

 

The good news is that it always happens to the guy from the other unit. The bad news is that to everyone else, you are the other guy.

 

If the sound of your personal vehicle shedding paint and broken glass while crumpling into a wad with you inside isn't the world's worst alarm clock, I'd like to know what is.

 

I hereby propose that the English language dispense with the word "siphon" altogether, by removing the "h" and making it "sip on," because that's what the human suction pump often does to whatever noxious liquid is in the hose.

 

Two simple equations that apply to everyone. First, initiative plus knowledge equals kudo. However, bright idea plus overconfidence equals booby-trap.

 

Bad habits and risky behavior don't qualify as "experience." Experience is when you take the time to learn how to do something the right way, practice, pay attention, keep learning, and follow the rules. Deciding that because you got away with doing something stupid means you will always get away with it, well, that isn't being "experienced," it's being a future ambulance passenger.

 

In the line of fire is a dangerous place to be. When a Scout with a weapon points it at you, assume something very small, hard, fast, and painful will emerge.

 

Lets all assume that common sense is increasingly uncommon (trust me, we arent exactly going out on a limb here, what with the demise of the family farm). Lets actually read the instructions and the warnings. Precautions should not generate their very own emergencies.

 

As Dirty Harry said, "A mans got to know his limitations." Add to that this salient quote from Alexander Pope: "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing." If you dont take this advice, you run the risk of self-inflicting some other limitations, such as how well your arms and legs work.

 

The accident report said, "Alcohol was a contributing factor." No foolin'. Thats like saying sunset contributes to darkness, or rain contributes to puddles. Also, thats why its not allowed where Scouts are present.

 

Granted, some safety devices on tools make it harder to cut wood. Theyre awkward, but thats fine, because they also make it much harder to lop off parts of your extremities, which many tools find much too easy.

 

If theres one word that brings a shudder to someone who has read several thousand mishap reports, it is "self-taught." You have to ask yourself, how much does the person youre learning from know?

 

Regardless of how fast they can cover a hundred meters, no Scouter in the history of the movement has ever been able to outrun the fireball that blossoms when they throw a match into a pile of wood they've just doused with gasoline.

 

Three things you should never mix: a snow-covered hill, an inner tube and a tree.

 

The buddy system requires more than one buddy to stand on the shore and point to the other buddy's hat floating in the water and say, "I think he sank about right ... there."

 

So, what's a seatbelt cost, anyway? Nothing, right? Comes with the car, and most people never consider the cost of the thing. But it's priceless, isn't it? Unless you can put a price tag on the value of human life, there's no way to determine what you'd pay for a buckled seatbelt one nanosecond after you simultaneously realize you need it, and discover you don't have it on. Probably, you'd give everything you have for one right about then, wouldn't you? But, you'd be too late right about then, wouldn't you?

 

They just call it "softball"--it really isn't.

 

If you're still riding bicycles, there's a couple of laws you have to be mindful of. Law of gravity--that's important to pilots and most of the rest of us. Then there's the law of unintended consequences, always something to keep in mind, as in "What are the unintended consequences of me zipping through this intersection on this yellow light?" But the one law that should remain uppermost in your consciousness at all times is the law of gross tonnage.

 

Ahhh ... dads and lads. A sure formula for disaster--especially when one of them is ten years old and the other acts like he is.

 

About the only thing I can imagine you could do to make riding in the bed of a pick-up truck any more dangerous than it already is, is to be back there and be holding on to a poisonous snake.

 

Sport parachuting--two words that spring most readily to mind whenever anyone asks me to define "oxymoron."

 

You know, the wonderful thing about these extraordinary human beings we call Scouts and Scouters is that, regardless of the obstacles they may encounter, they will do what ever it takes to get a job done. We as leaders, need to keep that in mind lest we engender a false sense of urgency into routine tasks. Nothing we will ever do is worth the risk of one member's life--nothing. And don't let anybody tell you different.

 

Being young, strong, pretty, handsome, or a nice person counts for nothing. Being aware, alert, thoughtful, and sober counts for everything.

 

Every act has its consequences. Everything costs, either in coin or kind. The question should always be, "What am I willing to pay?"

 

Before your next road trip, plan to get plenty of rest. Find your blanky, climb into your Doctor Denton's, zip up the front, button up the back, crawl into bed and get a good night's sleep. Come to think of it, thats great advice even if youre not taking a trip.

 

We come far too late to the realization that life plunges invariably and inexorably onward, regardless. You must prevent tragedy--you cant change it, erase it or rewind the tape and try again once it's happened.

 

Most mishaps start with what folks considered a "minor oversight" or an "acceptable chance" just seconds before the pain started. They were doing things that they had done hundreds of times before without any problem. And they got just comfortable enough to let their guard down. Bad things don't happen just to bad people.

 

No watchmaker markets a wristwatch that sounds an alarm right before you do something stupid. That's what the little bell in the back of your head is for.

 

Why do people pouring Coleman fuel onto a campfire always have enough time to spend 15 minutes waiting for the ambulance, 30 minutes for the ambulance ride, two and a half hours getting treated at the hospital and four hours writing up the accident report, but they never have enough time to read the G2SS and take the precautions that would have prevented all that pain and wasted time in the first place?

 

Just because you can't see the bottom of the pond doesn't mean it is deep enough to dive.

 

Next time you are thinking of doing something ingenious, first make sure it isnt "ungenius."

 

Ego has no place on the interstate, it's just excess baggage. Slow down, take a deep breath and, as you let the loon who's trying to cut across nine lanes of traffic before the last exit to Whackosville slide in front of you, smile. You'll feel better and he'll be befuddled for a week.

 

It's not only the best-laid schemes o' mice and men that gang aft a-gley. The worst-laid fare no better.

 

There's this little town in Spain where they have a free school that will teach you everything you need to know about bulls in under fifteen minutes. Go to Pamplona. When they let the bulls into in the streets, do what everyone else does: run like a scalded dog.

 

Trying to insert a key into the keyhole of a door of a van whilst running alongside it in the dark as it bounces downhill backwards over rough terrain is not a skill that matures quickly.

 

Safety belts onsmart. Very smart. Taking your eyes off the road while driving seventy in a rainstormdumb. Very, very dumb.

 

Don't make the mistake of assuming that because you cannot save the whole of mankind, you have failed. I'm not asking you to save the world. Just to change one life for the better--just one. I believe that in the times to come we're pretty much going to have the BSA we deserve and my heart tells me that all it will take for BSA to be as good and as strong as it can possibly be is for each of us to practice being accountable to one another. Our answer, when someone asks the ancient question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" ought to be, "if you're not, you're in the wrong program."

 

In a clash of titans, young bones always win. Remember that when the geese fly south and the chill wind makes you think you've still got what it takes. You don't.

 

Personally, every time I get to feelin' sort of invincible, like nothing bad could ever happen to such a neat guy as me, I recall the last words of General John Sedgwick, who said, as he watched the rebs and his yankee troops skirmish in the distance around the Spotyslvania Courthouse, "Don't worry none. They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist--."

 

Every time someone dumps two gallons of gasoline on a pile of wood (wet or otherwise), then asks you to light it with your cigarette lighter, the results will never vary: you'll catch your face on fire--every time.

 

Three rules for long life:

1. All guns are loaded.

2. All snakes are poisonous.

3. All circuits are hot.

 

How to tell that Autumn has arrived: Simply tally the number of human torches racing around their lawns--with their pants legs and their shirts on fire--busily engaged in an expanding square search for a garden hose.

 

Pier to waterline, 10 feet. Top of the water to the bottom, 2 feet. The 10-foot leap is the easy part. As the man said, it isn't the fall, it's the sudden stop at the end. Ospreys and pelicans, equipped with brains the size of walnuts, plummet into water all day long and end up with fish, not fractures. Can't we humans do a little better?

 

[KA6BSA 10]

We have already tried to teach the Scouts good sense, so now we just teach them first aid!

[Eamonn 61]

I used to think that all the important lessons were learnt in kindergarten. Now I know that they are in the Guide To Safe Scouting.

Great Posting - Thank You.

Eamonn

[scoutingagain 20]

KS

 

Thanks a bunch for this. If you don't mind I'd like to take some of this and adapt it for some internal folks I work with.

 

Thanks again for sharing.

 

SA

[KoreaScouter 13]

SA;

 

That's the idea; use it any way you can! Safety admonitions can be heavy-handed and monotonous -- I like those because they get the message across, and keep your interest, and even entertain. Bottom line, if people are paying attention, that's half the battle.

 

I especially like the fact that even though these accidents happened to military people, so many are directly applicable to us in Scouting that little to no "word smithing" is required for them to be 100% relevant to any of us, too.

 

KS

[buffalo2 14]

I hereby nominate KoreaScouter as our honorary Safety Director!

[Adrianvs 10]

Every party has a pooper; that's why we invited you. Party pooper. Party pooper.

 

Just kidding.. Good reminders.

 

 

"Three rules for long life:

1. All guns are loaded.

2. All snakes are poisonous.

3. All circuits are hot."

 

While number one is always a good rule and number three would have spared our Lodge Chief getting knocked on his arse at a work weekend, I must protest that number two rather complicates our Reptile and Amphibian Study sessions.

[Twocubdad 665]

Here's another one:

 

"Hey, y'all, watch this!" roughly translates as "Someone call 911!"

[hops_scout 9]

We have a problem... I came acrossed a recent post from some people over at rockclimbing.com regarding BSA and some things they have seen done totally wrong. For you in OK, one guy said one of your climbing instructor "was running as many people up and down that tower as he could. The assistant director was at the top setting people up for rappelling."

 

This needs to stop. I highly doubt any of you have those things done in your troop or anything, but if you spot it, please STOP it!!

 

Thank you. And I have been quite busy defending the BSA over there, too, BTW.

[KoreaScouter 13]

OK, here's a few more to add to the list:

 

- Tent stakes are pointy and inflexible. It doesn't matter whether they're lying flat or pounded into the ground; they just make marks on different parts of your body.

 

- If you're driving somewhere and the conditions tell you to slow down, you may be going slower than you would be ordinarily, but it's still faster than walking. And if it isn't, it's probably time to re-think the whole thing.

 

- When you're done cooking, and you have hot grease or oil as an end result keep this in mind: hot grease is not only hot, but everything around it is now also slippery -- bad combination.

 

- Physics lesson: impatience is absolutely useless for overcoming resting inertia of fixed objects.

 

- Snapping the chin strap on a bike helmet while riding the bike is harder than it seems. What is precisely as hard as it seems is the mailbox you run into when you take your hands off the handlebars to snap the chin strap.

 

KS

[AK-Eagle 19]

Warning! first swallow any liquids that may be contained in your mouth and move coffee cups, soda cans, etc away from hand's reach. Ready?

 

This was also adopted, procured, re-appropriated, etc. from a military listing

 

The Five Most Dangerous Things in Boy Scouts

 

A Patrol leader saying, I learned this in JLT.

A Commissioner saying, Trust me

A Tenderfoot saying, Based on my experience

A Professional saying I was just thinking..."

A Eagle Scout chuckling, Watch this

 

You may now resume consuming that beverage

 

YIS

Phil

 

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

5 rules in the Woodshop of life

 

1. Lunch and drinks is for the cafeteria not the smooth concrete floor.

2. Sorting a huge box of nails has a purpose.

3. Screaming at a person's back that is using a power saw may not bring the desired results.

4. Nail guns can puncture deep into a thick piece of wood.

5. Cleaning the shop is more than anal tidiness.

 

FB

[ozemu 10]

None of the safety equipment that you carry will be needed.

 

So carry lots

 

...and try to remember what you didn't pack - because you will need shortly.

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

Doug C. and I decided to chop down the large dead oak tree that was hanging precipitously over one side of the Scout Hut. Both of us being Eagle Scouts, the holders of the Paul Bunion award, and a legend in our own minds; met one Sunday afternoon to resolve the issue. We felt that consulting the committee would only be a hindrance, and we could save the Troop money and on top of it nobody would ever know. We both worked wood in our spare time and knew the many dangers that could befall such a project. So, we firmly believed that all bases were covered.

 

We stood around the large old tree and made much talk for a period of time. We never exceeded our grasp of kindred and sacred woodlore knowledge that we both shared. In short, we hit upon the very strategy that was later to dismay many a leader that viewed the results.

 

Since the tree was leaning into the Hut, it was our combined thinking that we should cut the opposing side. We chopped away for about an hour, wood chips flying. When we got near the mark where we supposed it close to breaking and falling, Doug was to get on the side leaning into the Hut and push out. Him being the larger and the stronger of the two of us, we believed this would work well. I continued whacking the rough cut and Doug grunted or snorted and I laughed.

 

The time finally came when a vibration somewhere in the tree alerted us to its destination. I quickly dropped my axe and jumped in to give Doug an extra hand with the last push. As you already imagine the results of our efforts were sadly lacking in many ways. A truth that we only learned too late was that a large dead oak tree that is leaning in one direction if cut wrongly, will only fall in one direction. We both escaped with minor cuts, bruises and abrasions and just prior to being crushed had it not been for the Scout Hut. The tree hit the Hut with such force that it knocked a good sized chunk out of the roof.

 

Both of us we were amazed at our meager efforts. We hooked a chain to the tree and pulled it off the Hut with a truck while it scratched and tore at the siding. We were exhausted by our efforts and called it a day. The committee was finally consulted but it was about a new roof and the siding was added months later. Come to think of it, the old Hut looks pretty dern good.

 

FB

 

[scoutldr 732]

Congratulations to General KoreaScouter for reaching 5 star rank already! I can only dream ....

 

As a Safety and Health Professional, we believe there are no such thing as "accidents". There are only "unsafe acts" or "unsafe conditions". There is also no such thing as "safe". There are only varying degrees of "unsafe". As Scouters, our duty is to ensure planning is in place to anticipate, identify and take steps to minimize risk. The military calls this "Operational Risk Management" (ORM). It is a well known fact that more soldiers, sailors and airmen fall victim to what we call "DNBI" or "disease and non-battle injuries", than they do to actual combat injuries. Prevention of DNBI through proper planning and training is a "force multiplier". We in scouting can think of this as a "fun multiplier".