Yesterday, my departure from work was delayed a bit and I rushed home even faster than usual along a familiar street. There were still a thousand and one things to do before a couple of my friends were coming to visit. On the way, I was about to stop at a store to pick up some goodies for the evening, when my speed stopped like a chicken flight.
I had made it all the way to the entrance standing upright, but when I stepped through the glass door of the air closet to the store side, I hit a headland on the tile floor. My knees buckled and my left hand shook as I caught my fall with it. The spectacular entrance was crowned by my backpack, which slid down my back and finally crammed my union onto my head.
After standing up, I found that the bones seemed to be intact and I began to wonder what had happened. I noticed that the floor of the air closet and the store were the same light tile, and they were separated by a step of a few centimeters. The vertical surface of the threshold was also the same tile - stylishly discreet. The toe of my shoe had caught on to that.
The day before, I had visited the Rudus safety park as part of the Safety Week program in the construction industry. A two-hour tour of the security park's checkers opened my eyes to the countless dangers that lurk on the construction site. Many of them seem innocent at first glance. For example, the metal stairs leading to the construction site can in themselves be sturdy and correct. However, 90 percent of accidents on stairs happen on the first or last step. The edges of these should be visibly painted or taped.
According to the tour guide, human motor skills can be confused by, for example, a small difference in the height of the stairs. To this, one of the participants mentioned that he had recently tripped on the stairs of his own workplace for consecutive weeks. After the third time, he had started to think about what it was all about and ended up measuring the steps. One of the steps turned out to be eight millimeters higher than the others and this was enough to mess up the rhythm of the steps.
The staff at the delicatessen, on the other hand, were startled by my outburst and immediately took corrective measures. The owner of the place immediately went to put masking tape on the glass door, on which he wrote a warning about the step. This morning, when I passed by the place, I noticed that there was a neat note attached to the door, warning in three languages about the threshold. They also promised to mark this with attention paint.
After making the purchases, the cashier put things in order of importance, consoling me that luckily the tights didn't break. I just said that yes, what about the knees being bad. I had quite a horn growing on my throbbing right knee, and I received my guests in the evening with a cold bag taped to my knee.
Today is May 13th and Friday, officially Accident Day. In a press release from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, it is stated that more than a million accidents occur in Finland every year, most of which are caused by haste. Haste affects the occurrence of accidents everywhere, causing damage at work, at home and in traffic. Accident Day reminds us again of the damage caused by haste.
I confess that my cardinal sin is overly tight schedules and rushing at the last drop. If I had a Native American name, it would be “The Woman Who Walks Fast”. This is how my co-workers at the time had described me when I had started at a new workplace and someone had asked for the identification marks of a newcomer.
In my defense, I can say that I try to prevent damage with a few simple means. When I go down the stairs, I hold on to the railing of the fence. I usually only wear high heels in the office and I change my feet into decent shoes when I go out. In winter slides, I don't even agree to move without my stilettos. I keep the walkways clear both on the stairs and elsewhere. And I try to slow down, especially when I'm moving. The emphasis is on the word pyrin – in this respect I have the most to improve.
You can participate in accident day by spending a leisurely moment and sharing a picture of it on social media with the tag #hopulleloppu.
A carefree rest of the day!
Merja Vuoripuro
Director, Communications and Responsibility
merja.vuoripuro@rt.fi + 358 40 587 2642Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries (CFCI)
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