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How a Burrito Provides an Important—and Humorous—Safety Lesson

Safety stories usually involve serious injuries, like the massive concussion Kimble Anders received after tossing his helmet in frustration, or close calls like collisions that are narrowly avoided by paying attention.

But Tim Page-Bottorff shows that sometimes these stories can be funny—and they can have a real impact on teaching safety to others.

Tim is a safety trainer who frequently uses humor in his sessions to help his lessons sink in with the audience. In a recent article in EHS Today on his Humor and Safety session at VPPPA 2014, Tim says that using humorous stories that happen to him help show people that he’s “human and not superhuman.”

So what kind of story does Tim use? One that starts off with a family trip to a fast-food restaurant.

Page-Bottorff recalled a time when he and his family were going through the Taco Bell drive-through. When he took a bite of his burrito, the contents “evacuated” onto his lap.

“And can you guess what my daughter in the back [of the car] said? She had the nerve to say, ‘Daddy, you’ve got beans in your jeans!’”

Tim’s story helps him relate to his audience, and goes to show that incidents don’t always cause an injury—but that small messes like a burrito in your lap can help you recognize the risk of multitasking (like driving and eating at the same time) and avoid more serious incidents in the future.

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