The holiday season is meant to be a time of joy but it’s also often full of risk. Even seemingly simple tasks like putting up Christmas lights can be a very real potential source of injury, especially when our state of mind increases the risk of making an error and clouds our judgment
Here’s a story from Don Elliott, who is one of the SafeStart Certified Trainers at the Procter and Gamble facility in Brockville. After going through the SafeStart process at work, Don began to recognize how common off-the-job injuries are and the importance of teaching safety skills to family members.
Below, Don applies SafeStart skills to his Christmas decorating habits and is able to avoid a risky situation. And best of all, he’s able to give his daughter a very important lesson in safe behavior, risk assessment and avoiding injuries at home.
Now let’s hear from Don:
Here is my Christmas self-trigger story. I bought a laser display that shines on my house to replace the Christmas lights I won’t be putting on the roof this year. In the past I put a blow up Santa helicopter on the peak of the roof and lights all along the front of the house. Our twelve year old daughter and I had a discussion about the risks we used to take to put up our decorations and decided that we could find a safer way. The laser lights up the house and we built a well-lit landing pad in front of the house where Santa can land safely and we did all of this with our feet on the ground.
The first picture below is what I had done in the past which put Nat and myself at risk. The second picture is the result of Nat and I looking at the first picture and triggering on the risk. I’m a little embarrassed about the first picture and I’m proud that Nat and I used our SAFESTART knowledge to find Santa a safer place to land and eliminating the need for us to have to land if we fell off the roof.
Thanks to Don for taking SafeStart training from P&G Brockville to his home and sharing it with his family, and for providing us with this excellent reminder to stay safe as we prepare for the holidays.