Have you ever been told your crazy, paranoid, not living in the real world, etc.? I don’t mean at work, I mean by family members and neighbors! I come from a family of safety professionals (my brother, my sister-in law, two of her three sisters, one of her sister’s husbands, and my Dad has always been more proud of his Pulp Wood Association Safety Awards than any others; they still hang in the house to this day, and yet my family will tell me I am over the top.
I am proud of the fact that neither of my kids (aged 7 and 9) have had any broken bones or stitches so far in their lives. My daughter is 9 and she has already been in rehab for a soccer injury on her ankle, but to me that is a tolerable level of risk and comes with playing the game. There is RISK in EVERYTHING we do; but so many of these risks can be easily controlled with very little effort and absolutely NO MONEY would be required.
Recently, I had a discussion with a neighbor on my street about the parking situation on our street and it turned into a …”you’re crazy discussion”, but I ask you, who is the crazy one? You see my family lives on what is called a “cul-de-sac” in the USA. Basically it is a dead-end street with a large circle at the end. This a GREAT for our kids, as we have NO THROUGH traffic, thus much less traffic than on a normal thoroughfare. But there are inherit risks to living on a cul-de-sac and these risks are only increased with improper parking on the street. We have ZERO parking location restrictions within our subdivision. We have time limits on how long a car can be parked on the street or even in your own driveway, but absolutely NOTHING on how or where you park your car on the road. For example, you can be cited by the home owners association for leaving a vehicle parked on the road for more than 7 days without it being moved. This is to prevent broken down cars from being stored on the road. Some say this is for safety, but we all know it is for aesthetics and not about safety. Because if safety was the driving concern, then parking a car in front of a fire hydrant for 7 days would not be allowed, but it is, as long as you do not exceed the time period. Here are my concerns… tell me if I am wrong or if I am crazy.
I have a 1,000 gpm fire hydrant in front of my next door neighbor’s house and the emergency responders can be at my home in less than 7 minutes. Sounds really good, huh? Living on a cul-de-sac , we have only ONE (1) way for police, fire and EMS to reach my home. All it takes to screw me and my family is two individuals parking their cars across from each other on our street and the responders would be prevented from reaching my home. The two cars parked across from each other narrows the passage too such a narrow width that not even our community’s ALS ambulance can pass between them. Then don’t forget about parking in front of a hydrant is allowed (as long as you move your car within 7 days!). So now I have two potentials that could greatly impact my family and our way of life. So in talking with my neighbor about this, and by the way this whole parking discussion was started by him complaining about his neighbor’s kid’s friends parking in front of the community mailboxes preventing him from pulling up right in front of the mailboxes to get his mail. When I mentioned my concerns with the parking situation, he thought my concerns were just ridiculous and over the top. So him having to walk down the sidewalk a couple of hundred feet to get his mail is more of an issue than watching his house burn or EMS not being able to reach his family within the gold five minute window!
This summer we have two new, but all too common risks found in our communities…swimming pools! In fact just two weekends ago Cincinnati had two brothers (8 and 13) die in a neighbors pool! We now have two pools at the very end of our cul-de-sac. These pools only increase the risk for all of our kids, including their friends who come to visit. But even this is not enough to convince the majority that we have to control something as SIMPLE as PARKING to help ensure that if something does go wrong, ALL of the things we THINK will happen have a chance to happen. Imagine, it is 2:00 a.m. on a cold winter night and your smoke detectors go off. Your family is standing out in front of your house waiting for the fire department. You can hear the fire trucks coming, with their sirens and horns blasting away. You then see their lights, as their sirens get louder and louder. But then they stop at the end of the street! Your first thought is… “what are they doing – get down here now!” Why did they stop? They can not fit between the two cars parked on the street. Now smoke is really starting to roll out of your attic and the sounds of your house burning are now more prominent than the sounds of help arriving. Or how about this one… its hot summer afternoon when one of the neighborhood kids is found floating in one of the pools? You pull them out and begin CPR; a neighbor calls 911. You are frantically trying to save this child, but you are starting to tire from the compressions, your adrenaline is starting to run low, but you hear the sirens off in the distance so you tell yourself, just a little more and I can let the professionals take over. The sirens are getting louder, as you grow more tired. No one else knows child CPR so you are on your own, but you are starting to cramp, but then you hear the sirens stop and you ask one of the neighbors to go to the front of the house and get the EMS responders and lead them back to you. You think they are at the front of the house..why else would they turn off their siren? They are stuck at the end of the road because of two cars parked on the street! The neighbor comes running back to you only to inform you that she thinks the ambulance is lost as they are just sitting at the end of the street. What goes through your mind now! You know you are the ONLY shot at this kids having any chance of survival, yet you are completely drained and now it is even a struggle to make the 30 compressions!
Just a simple matter of passing a subdivision resolution that parking is only allowed on the side of the road opposite fire hydrants! It is as simple as that! As safety professionals, we dread the day when we have the opportunity to say the phrase “I told you so”, but in our line of work it will eventually happen. The issue is not whether we actually will say it, but HOW DO WE GET PEOPLE to see it, before we have a chance to say it! It just blows my mind that I am the only one on my street thinking this, when the rest of the residents have experienced having to go 1 mph as they pass between the two parked cars in their own personal vehicles. This is so much more than an inconvenience in getting our mail! This simple issue could become a matter of live and death, or loosing all of your belongs in a fire that should have been just “smoke damage”! When will the bad thing happen? Who knows, but when it does happen, we EXPECT the emergency responders to come save us from tragedy. Our problem is, two parked cars can turn our lives upside down!
So as a safety professional, are we prepared to leave work after a long day of pushing for safety, to then going home and resume these duties with our neighbors? I am, because it is not about me having friends or being worried that everyone thinks I am crazy, it is ALL ABOUT my family’s safety and well being! Just like at work, it is not about making friends and worrying about what people think, it is ALL ABOUT doing the RIGHT THING for safety! My kids know the rule…NEVER EVER go into either of the backyards that have pools without Mom or Dad being there! But none the less, I just caught my 7 year old son running through the backyard of my next door neighbor, right by their pool! Kids get excited and loose focus, they will make mistakes, but it is my job as their parent to REMIND them of the rules. Even then, it may be my child who is the victim of an accidental drowning and I WANT EMS TO BE ABLE TO REACH THEM in a timely manner. Becky and I have spent hundreds of dollars on swimming lessons for our kids, we strictly enforce the backyard rule and EACH TIME they go outside to play they are reminded of the rule (ALL year around). Becky gets her CPR training from her work. I get mine through my instructor recert’s. So we are prepared should our kids need need CPR! I even offer FREE CPR and 1st Aid courses in my community and I support my local FD with donations so they can continue community safety programs, but I am amazed at how many adults do not take a FREE child CPR course once in their lives. I am even more amazed at the number of households that have pools and NOT ONE TRAINED adult in water rescue and CPR for infants and children! Most adults think they can just dial 911 and help with be there within minutes. That may or may not be the case on my street!
To me personally, safety is a 24/7 profession. Our work is never done at work, home, and at play! So whether it is parked cars, swimming pools, or getting my brother-in-law to wear his seat belt, I am NOT crazy… I am just trying to make a positive impact on those I love and care for. I am relentless in my pursuit for their safety, but that in of itself does not make me crazy!
BTW, I will be practicing Lockout in my own home when I install my son’s new ceiling fan this weekend. I practice 100% of what I preach!