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Marshall Hoskins
Mrs. Bevill
ENGL 1302-03
7 November 2015
Carelessness Killed the Carpenter
The film Shake Hands with Danger is a safety video made by the National Safety
Council and Caterpillar Manufacture Company for people who work in construction and with
machinery operation. Throughout the video, the actors give examples of different scenarios of
workers doing the job without following the safety requirements and then showing the
consequences that could happen from the action. The film made a valid point that if the workers
dont follow the safety regulations, whether they ignore them or are being distracted, can cause
damage to equipment, and can suffer serious injuries or death.
In the video, the makers made evident that workers who operate machinery and are
unaware of the dangers or process, because of carelessness or oversight, can cause major damage
to the machine they are using and the property, as well as endangering their life and the lives of
their co-workers. One example of this in the film is a worker trying to use a vehicle to pull an
excavator after being told by his foreman to move it out of the path for dump trucks. Since he
was being rushed to move the machine, he was forced to move it without getting a second person
to use a second vehicle. Because of this, the worker had nothing to support him as brakes when
the machine needed to move downhill. When he did come across a downward slope, he lost
control of the machine and was almost crushed. Thankfully, he was able to walk away from it.
According to the Center of Disease Control when analyzing injuries and fatalities from 2003 to
2010, they found that one of the main causes of deaths in a construction were vehicle related,

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such as being hit by a vehicle, falling off of one, collisions while operating one, or having one
turnover (Highway Work). The accident with the excavator could have killed the worker.
Another example of a distraction causing one to overlook safety guidelines is personal
issues. One such situation from the film, a worker is trying to finish up his job early due to a
family crisis, which has his mind focused on and leaving himself unaware of his job. This is an
example of a small mistake having major consequences. While he was driving a dump truck and
thinking about the problem back at home, he absent-mindedly presses levers and switches that he
became familiar with without looking. He then ends up pushing the wrong lever and loses
control of the vehicle. He later regains control, but not before destroying a large piece of the
building they were working on. Family issues may not be avoidable, however it is best if one
kept their mind focused work control a heavy vehicle.
If someone can break a building because of carelessness, it not hard to think that a
moment of ignorance can cost someone a lifetime of pain, if not the life itself. According to
statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 775 total deaths in construction in the
year 2012 which was about twenty percent of all deaths in all other industries that year (Rivera).
The video gave some valid, yet hard to watch, examples of this. One part of the video showed a
worker doing a work on an excavator, which has him go check the rig on the arm of the loader.
However, instead of lowering the arm of the machine to work safely at ground level that the film
suggested, he gets on the arm itself and climbs up to where he needs to work. Once he gets to the
rig, he slips and falls to what seems to be his death. Falls only accounted for almost forty percent
of deaths in construction sites in the year 2014 (Commonly Used Statistics). Another incident of
innocent ignorance gone wrong is when two men were trying to hammer out a pin from a
bulldozer. Instead of using a pen driver made for the job at hand, they use an old stake, which the

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head of is chipped and brittle. When the one with the hammer makes contact with a hard swing, a
piece of the stakes head breaks off and stabs into the chest of the hammer user. Small incidents
like this are the reasons that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration require that the
workplace to supply a first aid kit (MedicalFirst Aid). Another deadly hazard that people can
encounter in the workplace is gasoline. An open container of gas is literally a spark away from
disaster. In the film, a man used gasoline to lubricate and clean engine parts. Before he cleans out
the bucket he used to hold some gas, the vapors ignite, causing a fire to be created and spread.
This is a warning from the video that if gas isnt stored properly, any source of heat can destroy a
project. The filmmakers was confirming to the workers watching the film that if a worker wants
to prevent their project and themselves being from going up in smoke, following the guidelines is
the best step to take.
They also made another point in the film about accidents that happen: anyone in the
workforce is capable of making a mistake, whether or not they are a new employee or a longtime employee, due to different types of reason. One type of circumstance that is likely to cause
an accident is being unfamiliar with the vehicle or equipment in use. In the film, a group of
workers placed supplies in the bucket of a front loader, and the boss told a worker who has little
experience with operating a front loader. He does admit that he is not sure what to do and is
given a choice of doing it or not, but tells the boss that he will do it anyways. Because of his lack
of training with the machine, he did not do a basic check of the gears and levers making sure it
all safe and ready. The moment he turns the vehicle on the bucket of the loader starts to rise
while the boss truck was still right next to it. While it was still rising, it caught the bed of the
truck, and lifts it up several feet upward until it fell off of the loaders bucket and crashes down
to the ground. Even though blame could be placed on the previous user of the front loader,

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someone who is trained in the machine would have done a routine check of the gears to see any
abnormality, such as the lift gear being raised. Another issue that could cause an injury is
someone simply being careless and unaware. An example from the video involves a worker wait
for a welder to finish so he could show him a something that needs work. While waiting for him
to finish, he lays against a wall, and then rest his arm on a vice. Unknown to him, the vice has
been heated by the welder to use in bending metal, and the moment the arm touches it the arm
gets a large burn. Technically, according to the video, this was not the of the worker, but the
welder for not warn him for the burn hazard.
Accidents are a common thing in everyones world. It is reasons like this that rules for
safety appear in the work place, and while someone could say that the film put in more extreme
versions of the possible outcomes, these are still likely to happen to anyone. Whether it is
someone who forgot to check the safety guidelines or was not paying attention, carelessness on
the job could cost someone more than a months salary. The scenarios in the film gave workers
who value both their jobs and life a good reason to follow the rules in red.

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Works Cited
"Commonly Used Statistics." Commonly Used Statistics. Untied States Department of Labor.
Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
"Highway Work Zone Safety." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, 17 Nov. 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.
"Medical Services and First Aid. - 1910.151." Medical Services and First Aid. - 1910.151.
United States Department of Labor. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Shake Hands with Danger. Caterpillar, 1980. YouTube. A/E Geeks, 3 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Oct.
2015.
Rivera, Jose. "Construction Site Accident Statistics." Construction Site Accident Statistics. Legal
Match, 16 Mar. 15. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.