What’s your courage level?

Without exception, while Rhett Brown is speaking you can hear a pin drop. On two occasions, people were so affected they had to step away for a respite, and on many occasions I witnessed tough construction workers fighting to hold back tears. At every seminar many people came up to Rhett afterwards to thank him and express their commitment to changing their attitude on safety, for the benefit of themselves and their families.

Rhett Brown is relating his personal experiences on a two-week height safety tour of eight New Zealand regional cities, organised by Site Safe New Zealand, ACC and the Department of Labour. The tour enabled Rhett, an ex-builder and tetraplegic and now professional motivational speaker, to tell his story to over 800 people from the construction industry.

Rhett Brown worked for six years as a hammer-hand on residential building sites, then he went to work one day and never came home.

It was not a big, dramatic fall that broke his neck – just a tumble from two unsecured planks resting on deck framing, only 2.2 metres from the ground.

Rhett says, “I landed directly on top of my head. I remember seeing my feet pointing up at the sky, and the tools falling out of my apron. And I heard the crunch as my neck broke.”

As Rhett lay on the ground, summoning energy to call for help, he felt a tingling sensation go through his body and realised he was paralysed. He spent two weeks in intensive care, six months in the Otara Spinal Unit and two and a half years in a home for the elderly, but has now moved into his own specially designed house, where he has caregivers in constant attendance.

Extensive tendon surgery has given him enough movement in his right hand to feed himself, control a wheelchair, clean his own teeth, brush his own hair and shave. Everything else – including showering and toileting – must be done for him.

This recent series of seminars in regional cities followed a tour in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch, run back in 2009. Rhett was the keynote speaker and each of the organisations provided supporting safety information with an opportunity for a Q&A session. The initiative specifically targeted work at height; however, the seminar was designed to be a wake-up call for anyone who has not given some serious consideration as to what the personal consequences will be if they fail to take reasonable precautions against being involved in an accident; and by ‘consequences’ I don’t mean the immediate injuries that may be sustained from an accident, but the long-term effect on the rest of your life.

Listening to Rhett, day after day, telling his local construction industry audiences of his accident and subsequent life, one could not help but develop a growing admiration for his courage and determination. We might think that we understand the limitations of being confined to a wheelchair, but the confinement is the least of it. It’s a total change of lifestyle. There is no more spontaneity; even minor activities have to be meticulously planned well in advance. He is constantly attended by a caregiver who handles the many things he can’t manage himself, and there is a raft of ongoing health issues.

Yes, it takes courage to live Rhett Brown’s life; I question myself as to whether I would have that level of courage. So it is with frustration that I still encounter a culture of resistance to doing a job safely.

Often individuals rationalise a failure to raise safety issues with their employers with statements such as “I’ll be picked on if I make a fuss”, or “my boss will tell me off or even send me home”, or “I don’t want to be the one who dobs our crew in” or “we won’t win any jobs if we do it the safe way”.

All of these and similar statements amount to the same thing – a lack of courage to do what is right. So consider this: if you don’t have the courage to stand up for rights to be safe at work, do you have the courage to live Rhett Brown’s life?

For most of us, being involved in a workplace accident is a hypothetical concept; there are now another 800 people who view it as a clear reality and some of them are going to do something about it, even if it is just changing their personal habits.

Jeff Strampel is a safety, health and environmental advisor for Site Safe New Zealand.

Site Safe New Zealand is the not-for-profit health and safety body for the New Zealand construction industry. For further information see:
www.sitesafe.org.nz