Families Pay the Price When Safety Is Ignored
Before Thanksgiving, I like to spend a little time thinking about what I’m thankful for. The list is long, but this year I am focusing on my parents.
I am lucky that at this age I still have both parents. I often think about that this time of year, and about a difficult Thanksgiving for Dad.
In November 1981, Dad was driving home from work in the dark. As he approached a railroad track he had crossed thousands of times, he did not notice it was undergoing maintenance.
The crew didn’t finish their work before the end of the day and left with holes dug out between the tracks. And they had only set up warning signs on one side of the road.
Unfortunately for Dad, it was not the side of the road he was approaching from. His Ford F-100 came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the train tracks. He smashed his face into the steering wheel, breaking his upper jaw and nose.
Fortunately, the collision didn’t knock him out. He was able to open the truck door and stumble out. A short time later, an oncoming train smashed into his truck.
The noise from the wreck caught the attention of someone about a half mile away. He found my father bloody on the side of the road and drove him about 25 miles to the nearest hospital.
I enjoyed helping Dad wash and wax his Ford F-100. This was before a train smashed it, obviously.
That was on a Tuesday. They didn’t operate on him until Saturday, when the swelling on his face had gone down. They reset his nose and wired his jaw shut. He spent a little under two weeks in the hospital and six weeks unable to eat.
He drank Thanksgiving dinner through a straw after Mom had put it all in a blender. This is not the ideal way to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal, but after that scare, we were all very thankful he has celebrated Thanksgiving with us for these last 44 years.
It didn’t have to be that way. Had the crew put out proper warnings and signage, Dad would have taken another route home through the country and it would’ve been a night like any other.
I wouldn’t have spent the next three nights at my grandmother’s house wondering if Dad would come home and what he would look like if he did.
But some workers rushed and they didn’t follow security procedures. Unfortunately, this is not unique to Dad. Nearly 5,300 people died in workplace accidents in 2023, including 145 in Illinois. And 2.6 million people were injured on the job that same year, with more than 100,000 in Illinois. Often, it’s because of poor workplace training and safety equipment.
This is why I recently have stood up twice with workers at the Illinois International Port. Workers say they toil in unsafe working conditions, with equipment that’s not well maintained and face retaliation for speaking out about them.
I’m proud to stand with workers at the Illinois International Port District as they seek safer working conditions.
I feel terrible for the families of workers who go to work but don’t come back home. I feel anger towards employers that treat their employees like interchangeable cogs.
As an investor, I know that companies can avoid much of this. Proper equipment and training costs money. Following safety procedures can take time. But the cost to the company for injuries and death to their employees is far greater.
Too many people are injured on the job. It doesn’t have to be that way. By taking some extra time to be safe, and spending a little more on proper equipment, more families can enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with their loved ones. I know I would be thankful for that.
Sincerely,
Michael