Water Safety Tip by Safety Speaker John Drebinger – Summer is Here

Water Safety Tip – Summer is Here by Safety Speaker John Drebinger

As a safety speaker I love all the great ideas I pick up from my clients. I mentioned a few weeks ago before every meeting including conference calls one of my international consulting clients begins with a safety moment. For today’s call, I offered to give the safety moment before we began. Due to its timely nature, I wanted to share it with you today.

On Saturday, my daughter brought our two grandchildren, Owen who is 3 years old and Lauren who is 5 years old, to swim at our house. Lauren has had lessons and is capable of swimming from one end of the pool to the other without pushing off the side. Owen is learning and currently loves our spa, which is about 50 feet from the pool near our bedroom door. He does great in the spa because he can easily stand up anywhere. The danger is when he is in the spa and Lauren is in the pool your attention is divided.

I have been a trained lifeguard for many years and I can tell you there is only one safe approach. There must be someone watching each of the children. The illusion is you would hear if something is wrong and would be able to quickly run to their aid. At the very first National Safety Council Annual Congress I attended I learned from a retired Coast Guard instructor when people drown, most of the time they do so quietly. I was a new safety speaker and learning everything I could to improve my presentations.

Think about it! What is someone who is drowning desperately trying to do? Get Air! They are breathing in. Noise happens when you expel air and yell. Because they are out of breath they often can’t make noise. One of the original Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson, who was a surfer and a great swimmer, drowned at the side of a boat just a few feet from other people at a party. No one saw him go under and no one heard him.

Early in my career as a safety speaker, I witnessed this several years ago on a Boy Scout camp out with our troop. I was scoutmaster and serving as the lookout at a troop swim at a public lake. We had a buddy board made up and had about 16 scouts in the water. The lake shore swimming area had about 150 people in or near the water. As I was watching our scouts, I noticed a father with a very young daughter by his side. He was busy talking to a friend on the other side of him when the little girl slipped on the muddy bottom and went under water. I stood up and noted her position as the water was not clear because of the stirred up dirt. Of all the people at the beach, only two of us had seen her disappear. I headed to her location as did the other guy who saw her. We arrived about the same moment about 15 to 20 seconds since she went under water. The other guy reached down into the water and pulled the little girl out. It was then the father’s attention was attained. The father was upset at this guy for grabbing his daughter. I stepped in and explained she had been underwater for at least 20 seconds and this guy just saved her life. We were both thanked and after a quick visual count of my scouts, I went back to my post.

This summer, remind your employees the only safe way for children to be in water is to have someone actually watching them. The same goes for adults.

The previous safety tip is an example of how you can let employees know you really care about them. When you talk about safety off the job they know it isn’t just about saving the company money.

Have a safe summer. I look forward to many miles of sunny bike riding and swimming.

Be Safe,

John Drebinger

ASSE & NSC – Safety Speaker John’s Upcoming Safety Conference Presentations ASSE & NSC

Safety speaker John will be speaking at this year’s American Society of Safety Engineers PDC in Las Vegas, Nevada. His session is on Tuesday, June 25th, 10:30am to 11:45am Session #508 – Would You Watch For My Safety – A Leadership Perspective – I will be sharing some completely new insights on how leaders can actively watch out for the safety of others and help their employees do the same. ASSE has an APP for your smartphone – check it out and look for my APP also. Links to my APP are further down the page.

Arrive Early! Even though ASSE gives me a nice big room we still had people sitting on the floor and standing in the back of the room.

     Arrive Early

   Don’t Get Left Out

While You Are In Las Vegas

I recently attended a lecture at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, California by an outstanding street magician named Chris Randall. He can be seen around the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas. All street performers earn their living from tips so if you like what you see be generous. He taught me his method for the dollar bill in the lemon trick and I will be performing it during my presentation on Tuesday.

National Safety Council 2013 – Chicago, Illinois

I will be doing three presentations at this year’s National Safety Council Congress. One of the presentations is a full-day class. More information to follow in future editions of this newsletter.

Sunday Sept 29 @ 8AM-4:30PM Mastering Safety Communications #210

Monday Sept 30 @ 4-5:30 pm Helping Employees Take Safety Personally #32

Tuesday Oct 1 @ 4:-5:30 pm  Lifesaving Values! #80