Will you be here tomorrow?

June 21, 2012 1:57 PM

This workplace safety video teaches us that the most important way to prevent injury is to always think about what could happen (nsfw).
posted by gman (49 comments total)

See also.
posted by empath at 2:01 PM on June 21, 2012 [6 favorites]

Some of those stunts looked pretty dangerous. I'm sure that they used stunt men and not actual factory workers for them, or that would have been, y'know, irresponsible.
posted by nushustu at 2:03 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

This could probably use a warning - it's very gruesome.
posted by 0xFCAF at 2:05 PM on June 21, 2012 [3 favorites]

Totally awesome. Previous post about traumatizing public information videos.
posted by XMLicious at 2:07 PM on June 21, 2012

Absolutely horrifying. They better be careful at the ketchup factory, this video probably had them pulling double shifts.
posted by obscurator at 2:09 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

oh god no
posted by whimsicalnymph at 2:10 PM on June 21, 2012

The Story of Ricky Oh at Work
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 2:14 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

And that's why you don't wear gloves while operating the lathe. And you sure as shit don't calibrate it while running.
posted by ssmug at 2:16 PM on June 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Don't rub salt in your eyes.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:17 PM on June 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

oh goddammit, great, now i'm terrified of absolutely everything
posted by entropone at 2:23 PM on June 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

Good lord, I am never wearing my wedding ring again. BTW, this has to be the same firm that made Christian documentaries about backmasking.
posted by scunning at 2:23 PM on June 21, 2012

Too bad we can't revive Charles Addams, then, as the best choice ever for Workplace Safety Advisor.
posted by bearwife at 2:29 PM on June 21, 2012

I'm not leaving the house tomorrow
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:31 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

The danger is coming from inside your house!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:36 PM on June 21, 2012 [7 favorites]

I went to click the pause button on that video but my mouse splintered and I lost three fingers to the shrapnel.

It took me 30% longer to type this as it would have otherwise.

/off to askme to see how to get blood out of a keyboard... BRB
posted by HuronBob at 2:46 PM on June 21, 2012 [6 favorites]

This can't be an actual safety video, right? The pressurized tank rocketing into the side of the guy's head and the acetylene torch blowing chunks of a guy across the screen are some of the most hilariously over the top violence I've ever seen.
posted by DecemberBoy at 2:47 PM on June 21, 2012

Mod note: Added NSFW note to the post, adding it in the tags isn't actually enough.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:57 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

It is tagged NSFW.

Oh, the irony.
posted by drlith at 3:00 PM on June 21, 2012 [32 favorites]

That cubicle job is looking better and better, innit?
posted by kozad at 3:02 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I only added the NSFW tag as a joke. Didn't actually think the post itself required it in the way it's usually used. I really can't see how this post is not safe for work.
posted by gman at 3:04 PM on June 21, 2012

NSW
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:10 PM on June 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

I really can't see how this post is not safe for work.

My coworkers have no objection to hearing music or regular audio playing from my computer, but appear to be surprisingly unnerved by screams of agony.
posted by jacalata at 3:28 PM on June 21, 2012 [8 favorites]

I don't think I've ever attended a safety meeting that involved an actual discussion of workplace safety. Usually "safety meeting" was code for "let's all go around back and smoke a doobie while that one totally uncool dude is in the shitter."
posted by BitterOldPunk at 3:31 PM on June 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm definitely using this in my next safety brief!
posted by snsranch at 3:31 PM on June 21, 2012

THIS IS THE GREATEST VIDEO I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE OMG
Seriously, I think this is the reason YouTube was invented.
posted by Frobenius Twist at 3:42 PM on June 21, 2012 [2 favorites]

I also think that the way they blew out the audio when they were ripping the video really adds quite a lot to the experience: "GRAAAAAHWAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA [music] RRRRAGHGHGHAAAAAAA"
posted by Frobenius Twist at 3:44 PM on June 21, 2012

I've seen these people die before.
posted by cjorgensen at 3:50 PM on June 21, 2012

I'm pretty sure these were done by the same guy that did the Faces of Death videos.
posted by Bort at 4:00 PM on June 21, 2012

When I worked at an aluminum foundry, I personally witnessed four gruesome accidents. One electrocution and three severed hands.

Scaring the bejesus out of people who do dangerous work is A-OK with me.
posted by double block and bleed at 4:03 PM on June 21, 2012 [10 favorites]

Deliciously Cronenbergian!
posted by O Blitiri at 4:11 PM on June 21, 2012

This can't be an actual safety video, right?

I'm quite sure it is, as I've seen many others from the past 50 years, and this gore-shock-and-awe is standard procedure.

If it's not "real" safety films you're looking for, here's the best around: Staplerfahrer Klaus (English subs included).

With all the horrors I have witnessed in safety films, I want to make a safety film that warns of the dangers that surround you when shooting a safety industrial film.
posted by chambers at 4:32 PM on June 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

When I see a NSFW warning, I assume content might be construed as Too Sexy. "Gruesome imagery" would have been more helpful.
posted by feral_goldfish at 5:01 PM on June 21, 2012 [5 favorites]

I worked in a department store once.
Rule 1 of the box compactor: Never get in the box compactor.

Apparently we needed to be told that.
posted by Mezentian at 5:45 PM on June 21, 2012 [4 favorites]

WARNING: SKIP THIS COMMENT IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!

Actually, two severed hands and one arm caught in a reverb furnace when the door fell that burned off to the elbow before we could get the door opened again with a forklift. The furnace operated at more than 1350° F (735° C.) I almost passed out while he was screaming and writhing in pain and did pass out several times after I saw the injury.

There were lots of workers with partially missing fingers and terrible burns that I didn't see happen. Needless to say I was really fucking careful when I worked there, at home and at all my jobs since, even in offices.

I sometimes still have nightmares about the things I saw there. I've also developed a phobia of being burned. That was the most horrible thing I've ever witnessed and I've seen some terrible things. My wife teases me about being a safety nazi sometimes, but I've never told her all of the details of that particular experience.
posted by double block and bleed at 6:25 PM on June 21, 2012 [8 favorites]

And that is why... YOU ALWAYS LEAVE A NOTE!
posted by blue_beetle at 6:34 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Bjork is on the case: PSA
posted by R. Mutt at 7:02 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

In the seventies I used a metal five gallon gas tank for my motorcycle when towing it to do some off road riding. After returning from a very hot day of riding, I left the empty tank in my car overnight. When the hot gas vapors in the tank condensed, the tank collapsed and look liked a giant had squeezed it like an empty beer can. "A-ha, I can fix this," I said as I proceeded to inflate the squished tank with compressed air. Unfortunately when the tank sprung back to its original shape one of the previous wrinkles created a small crack when it was straightened out. "A-ha, I can fix this," I said as I prepared to solder the crack shut with a propane torch. But I was no dummy. I washed the tank with soap and water to remove any trace of any residual gasoline. I resumed the task of soldering the crack, but on a whim decided to wave the torch across the spout of the tank first. Evidently not all the fumes from the gasoline had been removed. The tank erupted with a shit-your-pants BOOM. I was now the proud owner of the only gas tank that looked exactly like a beach ball.
posted by digsrus at 7:32 PM on June 21, 2012 [6 favorites]

Rule 1 of the box compactor: Never get in the box compactor.

Apparently we needed to be told that.

You've be surprised. I regularly saw the warehouse foreman climb down into the trash compactor WHILE IT WAS RUNNING when I worked in a department store. I don't think anyone ever got into the cardboard baler, though.
posted by asnider at 9:12 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

I have a safety warning for you. Don't walk down freshly-washed still-damp stairs in old flip flops.

Watching this just now gave me the same gut feeling I had last night after mrgood did just that, and slipped and dislocated his shoulder. My heart went "thud" when we heard the "pop." And as he passed out, I realized even though he'd been hurt a few times over the course of our relationship (broken ribs from sledding, broken toe from my artfully-placed stack of vintage suitcases) - I'd never seen him in so much pain. I felt sick for him. I thought looking at that was gruesome, as was seeing the doctors prepare to pop it back in. I am very glad that the worst thing that happens to him at his work is getting snarky emails from account people - my nerves couldn't take any more than that.

Really, kudos to all who do these jobs. Being careful is hard, and it's still no guarantee against injury.

I also fell like I need to hold my fingers on my one hand with my other hand for a little while, and rock back and forth just being grateful none of them have ever been severed by metal plates as I fell off a platform.
posted by peagood at 9:35 PM on June 21, 2012

This puts today's nastygram from my boss into perspective. My job may be frustrating but it isn't dangerous.
posted by caryatid at 10:42 PM on June 21, 2012

I worked as a butcher for 3 years before getting a calm IT job, never cut myself once on the band saws. I've nicked myself a few times with my knives but that was nothing.

One day, a coworker thought it would be funny to pretend that his hand got caught in the grinder. I nearly shit a brick hearing him wail and scream as if it was really happening. I was so pissed off at him for faking an injury. He should have watched these videos.

These videos, while gruesome, are necessary.
posted by PipRuss at 11:04 PM on June 21, 2012

Harlan Ellison, the voice of experience
posted by benzenedream at 11:19 PM on June 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Extreme Engineering, while it often talks about safety issues, has given me the heebie jeebies in a few episodes. Just the presence of the camera crew -- who I assume has appropriate safety certifications and is using safety lines themselves when appropriate, etc., right? -- seems like it's a potential distraction for some of the operations they show, like multi-ton rebar forms for bridge abutments hanging overhead for ground inspection. The one that really concerned me was the fab shop for the steel arches making up the Woodrow Wilson bridge, which were built in Florida and barged up the coast. The shop had a huge gantry crane, but one part of the fabrication involved flipping this multi-ton steel form, and although they did it much more slowly than you watched it in the show, it was still a very dangerous operation that required TWO gantry cranes to handle the weight. At one point there was a pause and they had a guy facing the camera talking about the weight and the way they were doing things, and it's actually MOVING BEHIND HIM. He looked like he was ... affecting calm.
posted by dhartung at 12:35 AM on June 22, 2012

It just occurs to me that there's a mocumentary to be made here ala Spinal Tap and Forgotten Silver. Here's the elevator pitch:

A Mondo Macabre film director recently released from wrongful imprisonment for a "snuff" scene (a comic twist on the Cannibal Holocaust trial) attempts to raise the funds to produce his magnum opus, an adaptation of a fictional obscure manuscript by big-name author (bonus if you can get Stephen King in on the joke). His fundraising efforts involve a series of comically gory PSAs, training videos, religious television programming, and 5-minute proof-of-concept dramatizations of Stretch Armstrong and Jenga.
posted by CBrachyrhynchos at 6:29 AM on June 22, 2012

How can you people read this:

This workplace safety video teaches us that the most important way to prevent injury is to always think about what could happen.

... and NOT instantly think, "I bet that video is pretty gruesome"?

It says so right there in the sentence: "what could happen" (during injury).

Mezentian: Rule 1 of the box compactor: Never get in the box compactor.

Yep. Sometimes it's unavoidable... but we had a crew of people guarding the button, and someone standing by ready to pull the guy out if anything made a sound. And the power breaker thrown (which is only as sure as your knowledge of which breaker controls what). But I still shuddered when you said that.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:47 AM on June 22, 2012

When someone needs to get into a dangerous machine like a box compactor, OSHA requires that the worker use a system called lock out/tag out. Each person (and usually the supervisor) puts their specially designated padlock and warning tag on all sources of energy (the breaker in this case) after deactiving them and secures his key.

Then they attempt to operate the machine to ensure that it doesn't work. The machine remains locked out when the last worker removes his padlock and tag. Then they test to make sure it works correctly. That's the short version of how it works. There's paperwork inolved. Cutting off someone else's lock and tag generally results in termination and possibly a fistfight in the parking lot.

So yes, jumping into a box compactor for shits and giggles is a bad idea but sometimes someone has to go in there to fix something. This procedure helps prevent injury and death.

Climbing into a small space usually also requires confined space entry procedures that are also OSHA law.
posted by double block and bleed at 12:52 PM on June 22, 2012

Oh my. I just started a new job and had 3 full 8-hour days of orientation, much of it focused on safety. We covered the lock out/tag out, the confined space entry, the hot work, the fall prevention equipment, all the good stuff, with a particular emphasis on hand safety, since June is--of course--hand safety month.

Then I smashed my finger.

Luckily, my finger and I both survived, and when I told my boss that I felt like the biggest asshole in the world, he agreed that I should and left it at that.

I'm not sure how long it'll take before I completely forgive my finger for being such an idiot, but we're working on it, and I hope that we can get our relationship back to where it was before the "incident."

Progress is slow, largely because my finger insists that the whole thing was my fault.
posted by Ducks or monkeys at 7:17 PM on June 22, 2012

I was laughing at this because it's so over the top and I've seen several videos that were done much more realistically. Reading some of the comments here was like a big, cold bucket of water being tossed on me. It really isn't a laughing matter, is it.

Be careful out there.
posted by deborah at 1:37 AM on June 23, 2012

deborah, no, it isn't.

I directly attribute a gruesome film that showed actual corpses from auto accidents for saving my life when I was a new driver. The last thing I thought before starting off was, "Those Driver's Ed films were pretty bad. I better buckle up." 2 minutes later I was hanging from my seatbelt.

I support gruesome safety films. I can't imagine any lesser approach getting through my stupid teenage head.
posted by IAmBroom at 7:26 AM on June 23, 2012