Unsafety Dance!

July 26, 2006 11:34 PM

US Navy Saftey Center Photos of the Week. Or: A Nearly Comprehensive But Not Entirely Inclusive Manual of Instruction On How to Qualify for a Darwin Award.
posted by loquacious (22 comments total)

Note: Spelling "safety" as "saftey" is not on the list. Yet. Admins please hope me.
posted by loquacious at 11:37 PM on July 26, 2006

This one I like: "Snake Preparing to Get on a Plane."

Way to get your asp in a sling, airman!
posted by rob511 at 11:48 PM on July 26, 2006

posted by delmoi at 11:48 PM on July 26, 2006

Gotta love this one.
posted by IronLizard at 12:04 AM on July 27, 2006

The guys on Mythbusters duplicated that last one. It was one of their "confirmed" cases.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 12:22 AM on July 27, 2006

The guys on Mythbusters duplicated that last one. It was one of their "confirmed" cases.

Yeh, a pilot-instructor buddy told me that kind of accident is actually quite common. He'd use photos like that to scare his students into not slacking off when taxiing.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:30 AM on July 27, 2006

One of the navy.mil posts references Worksafe Victoria's "Safety Soapbox" publication and it's "Shocker of the Week" photos, so I went digging. It's a subscription service, but someone's been posting them. Quite a few "holy shit" moments in there.

When I was younger and arguably more stupid, I did a lot of roof work installing VSAT terminals and a lot of antenna work installing cell/microwave antennas. I used to hang my unharnessed ass over 30 stories without even thinking about it. Had anyone been around with a camera, there's no question I would have made "Shocker of the Week."
posted by quite unimportant at 1:04 AM on July 27, 2006

Some of the photos and writeups are pretty funny. Surprisingly few, however, have actual naval content, although if anybody ought to be thinking industrial safety generally, it’s a bluejacket.

One that I’m pretty sure *isn’t* in there, and isn’t at all humorous, was on the Web (Rotten.com?) a while back -- a series of shipboard accident-report photos from when an unfortunately tall sailor walked into a rotor arc on the fantail at flight quarters when a Seahawk was still turning and burning. It caught him right about eyebrow level, and the mess was pretty spectacular from a purely anatomical point of view – his cranial didn’t really contain it well. I feel especially badly for his buddies who had to clean it up. :o(
posted by pax digita at 5:33 AM on July 27, 2006

Oh, and in a machine shop aboard a tender (The Canopus, I think -- known to sailors far and wide as the "Can O' Pus"), there was this blowup pic of a surprisingly tasteful nude (this is before the Navy was as heavily gender-integrated as it is today) with the legend, "Beautiful! But it makes ZERO impression on a blind man. WEAR YOUR SAFETY GOGGLES IN THIS SPACE AT ALL TIMES."
posted by pax digita at 5:36 AM on July 27, 2006

OUCH!!! [Pain Warning]

Another great internet truck pic.
posted by yeti at 6:06 AM on July 27, 2006

The navy also has this searchable photo gallery. With photos which may remind you of famous movies; plus there are current events .
posted by PHINC at 6:12 AM on July 27, 2006

Very neat! Although they seem to have "previous" and "next" mixed up in their navigation...
posted by clevershark at 6:15 AM on July 27, 2006

I guess sometimes our taxes ARE used for good. I think this would be useful for some of those less than mentally savvy people entering the armed forces.
posted by evilelvis at 6:23 AM on July 27, 2006

I saw this years ago but it is well worth another look. A great resource for those who wonder why we have to have disclaimers such as "do not iron clothes while wearing them" printed on things.
posted by TedW at 6:31 AM on July 27, 2006

I've done this. I don't recomend it though. When I did it it was a step ladder, placed on a plank like the picture but the plank was hanging on angle braces at the top of two forty foot ladders. The boss didn't want to spring for the rental costs of a 60' ladder for the day and a forty didn't reach the peak of the house. And since I was the only 6'2" guy on the painting crew, I got to climb all the way up. *Shudder*
posted by octothorpe at 7:00 AM on July 27, 2006

some of those less than mentally savvy people entering the armed forces

When you couple that personnel challenge with everyday safety concerns, you begin to understand why so many Chiefs are prematurely bald and/or gray.
posted by pax digita at 9:12 AM on July 27, 2006

This brightened up a stressful day. Thanks.
posted by exlotuseater at 10:19 AM on July 27, 2006

I feel so much better now that I know that dog attacked (was attacked by...) a porcupine rather being the unfortunate dog of some sick fuck that threw matches at him. I couldn't believe anyone would do that, let alone post the picture, let alone the military would host it.
posted by pwb503 at 10:29 AM on July 27, 2006

Hall-monitor porn.
posted by crunchland at 10:39 AM on July 27, 2006

Actually relatively few of the pictures on that site come from military sources, a lot of them seem to have been provided by OSHA officers.
posted by clevershark at 12:06 PM on July 27, 2006

A lot of these seem overly cautious to me. This bike, cordoned off with red DANGER tape, seems clearly abandoned to me. Beehives don't just spring up while you're inside the drug store briefly. Some of them are funny, some of them are spot on. But the general tone I get from the site is "LET ME SHOW YOU SOMETHING!"
posted by Eideteker at 1:43 AM on July 28, 2006

A lot of these seem overly cautious to me.

No, they're just amusing safety-related photos. The point is that you go there to see the latest funny photo, and at the same time you read the commentary, and if you're in the Navy maybe you poke around the site some more, and next time you're doing a job you go "oh, I remember that website!" and don't stack up your paint cans for a ladder or whatever.

The pictures are what you'd call a "hook" or a "draw".
posted by mendel at 12:14 PM on July 28, 2006