Most people crossing a road in the rain are careful how they do it. They watch their step and though they hurry, they do so with attention. That is because wet roads are slippery and no one would want to twist an ankle, or end up with a muddied behind, though physically unscathed. The caution is all due to the infrequency of rainy days. We have so many sunny or dry days in Malta, that when it rains, people usually open their eyes and become aware of what may happen.
It is not so at the workplace, where familiarity with danger breeds contempt for it – at the cost of lives or maimed limbs. Fairly frequently, unfortunately, as anybody who follows the news in the media can tell.
A worker lays a plank across a deep chasm, perhaps to carry tools or materials across it to his place of work. Heights do not scare him. He has done this a hundred times before and nothing untoward ever happened. Another worker climbs a ladder two storeys high and enjoys the vista below him as he works. He is so familiar with the danger that he holds it in contempt. Across the road, other workers may be removing the stone slabs from a roof, to lay a concrete roof instead.
They are all so familiar with their work it is perhaps understandable that they may at times take risks which in other circumstances they would avoid. The worker crossing the plank carrying his tools may be enjoying the sensation of feeling the plank quavering under his weight as he walks across. But a sudden gust of wind could send him crashing down, or he might lose his balance at some sudden noise, such as a car backfiring. The worker who has climbed ladders most of his working life might have not, in a moment of absent-mindedness, noticed that he laid the foot of his ladder on ground that is wet with dew, or that the top of it has come to rest against a humid patch of wall. Or that his ladder is just round a busy corner, where a careless driver might crash into it. And the workers uncovering the room know very well that roof slabs can carry their weight easily. They may have checked them, but one may have a hairline crack they did not notice, and maybe it cannot take their weight.
Workers sometimes cut corners, maybe they need to finish their day’s work in time for an appointment. Cutting corners to save time may be endangering their life, but that is not obvious to them. It does not occur to them that though they have never before fallen a height, they might do so that day. One fall is all it takes. They may end lifeless.
In such circumstances, where danger seems to be of no account, accidents are bound to happen, workers may lose their life or end up maimed for good. If they escape with their life, they would rue their moment of absent-mindedness, the contempt they had had of the danger around them. But unfortunately for all, there are many cases where a situation is beyond ruing. Where there are lucky escapes, lessons are learned, but there is also much loss of life or lost use of limbs.
How can a worker be made to take care of himself? That is the question that needs an answer. Perhaps the message can be driven home, maybe through television, with short spots at news time. Give them statistics about admissions to hospitals, how long an injury takes to heal, how destitute their family can become because for one minute they were careless. And perhaps occupational health officials can go round and make workers pay for their carelessness, if not with fines, at least with the inconvenience of making them attend safety lectures. Whether they like it or not. Such action is likely to be the subject of their talk the following day. Maybe it could lead them to avoid taking risks, and make others do so as well.