wrote in message
...
Imagine, gentlemen, if you will, a perfect storm of poor judgement,
stupidity and bad conditions that led to about 2 inches being the
difference between a 'Holy S**t! WTF was that!?' and an OSHA
recordable.

A crew of form carpenters is forming a fairly substantial slab. It's
3 pm on a Friday, and the crew is winding down, getting ready for
their weekend. As the last few form boards are getting set, one of
the crew members measures the remainder on the form, and calls it out
to the "cut man."

Sawhorses? Nah, those are all the way over there. He props the 2x10
on a steel shoring beam that is about gut height. Wait, don't want
the saw to catch THAT. So, he moves the form board over onto a more
yielding surface: a stack of 2x3x3-foot stakes (sitting atop the
shoring beam). About halfway through the cut, apparently one of the
saw teeth caught one of the stakes, because it shot out across the
workzone at a pretty considerable rate of speed. Had it not hit one
of the other workers (the pointy end) a glancing blow on the shoulder,
I'm sure it would have traveled 30 feet before hitting the ground. 2
inches to the right, and that guy would be in the hospital with a 3-
foot form stake sticking out of his neck. All of this literally right
in front of the foreman and the PM, who were having a discussion while
looking out over the site. Nothing was said, no reprimand, nothing.

Back in the day, there was something called a safety engineer. I knew a
couple of them. I don't know if there is a modern day equivalent. If not,
there should be. If safety is not a concern of the crew, then stupid things
like this happen. Safety consciousness may be a PITA simetimes. But if it
prevents injuries, deaths. etc., it is worth it.