Another Close Call
Other than an intern, I have no full-time staff. I hire painters on a per-project basis, and so all of "my" painters have a number of jobs, other than working with me.
We've been very busy on a fun show, but yesterday one of "my" painters had the day off because one of her other jobs had a big work call.
And yesterday, this wonderful painter had a very serious accident.
I'm still a little unclear on the details, other than that she was working twenty feet up in the air in some kind of antiquated cherry picker, and somehow the whole thing tipped over, and she came down, crash-landing into the theater's seats.
Other than a bruise on her back that's the size of Nebraska, she's apparently fine. This girl is so unbelievably lucky. She could be dead.
At work this morning, she and I had a long talk about her legal rights, California State's worker's comp system, and safety in general. I told her to take as much time as possible to be certain that she spoke to the correct people. Berkeley Rep and I helped her track down a clinic that would see her as a worker's comp walk-in patient, because she needs to be looked over, just in case. I'll be driving her to the clinic tomorrow, even though the accident didn't happen while she was working for me. It's just the right thing to do.
When we're all at the theater next week, we'll be reviewing safety procedures for personnel lifts. Oddly, as part of our on-going safety program, we had just done a refresher on ladder safety the week before.
Thank goodness she's okay!
There are too many stories like this in theater. That "show must go on" mentality can be deadly.
Literally.
We've been very busy on a fun show, but yesterday one of "my" painters had the day off because one of her other jobs had a big work call.
And yesterday, this wonderful painter had a very serious accident.
I'm still a little unclear on the details, other than that she was working twenty feet up in the air in some kind of antiquated cherry picker, and somehow the whole thing tipped over, and she came down, crash-landing into the theater's seats.
Other than a bruise on her back that's the size of Nebraska, she's apparently fine. This girl is so unbelievably lucky. She could be dead.
At work this morning, she and I had a long talk about her legal rights, California State's worker's comp system, and safety in general. I told her to take as much time as possible to be certain that she spoke to the correct people. Berkeley Rep and I helped her track down a clinic that would see her as a worker's comp walk-in patient, because she needs to be looked over, just in case. I'll be driving her to the clinic tomorrow, even though the accident didn't happen while she was working for me. It's just the right thing to do.
When we're all at the theater next week, we'll be reviewing safety procedures for personnel lifts. Oddly, as part of our on-going safety program, we had just done a refresher on ladder safety the week before.
Thank goodness she's okay!
There are too many stories like this in theater. That "show must go on" mentality can be deadly.
Literally.
Comments
Good luck to you guys, by the way, are you getting any of the California snowfall we keep hearing about on the news lately?
Annalisa
.By the way, had that accident happened to me, I'd be washing the poo out of my dainties about now!
Annalisa
I am most relieved she is not seriously injured.
OBJuan
Also, she could contact a private group like Sapsis Rigging, ACTS Facts etc. to tell them about the theater and to ask for an inspection.
Just because we love what we do, doesn't mean our working conditions should be unsafe.