A Sad Memory, but with New Hope

I should have posted this Friday, but didn't get it done.

February 22. A bad day in 2006.

I graduated college in the summer of 2005 and got a full time job with one of the largest General Contractors in the Country. The first project I worked on was and new manufacturing facility in the city where I went to college. I would work on that project full time for 13 months when it was all said and done.

Some background. I interned on this jobsite as well as working starting full time after finishing my internship. When I started on site excavation was in full swing, the building bad was being prepped, and the auger cast pilings were just about to start being drilled. The only thing about the horizon on the site was the jobsite trailer, a power pole for the trailer, a storage container, and some big piles of soil. The general contractor I worked for was celebrating 150 years in business when I started with them. And they have a very good safety program. The Superintendent on the site where I worked had been to Las Vegas earlier that year to help make a presentation about the safety program at the company. They would win the Associated General Contractors of America award for the best safety program in there division, and would win the overall award as well. It is a company with a Safety Culture.

While I was in college, I received my 30-hour OSHA General Industry certification. While I was with the GC (General Contractor), I got my 10-hour and 30-hour OSHA Construction certifications and ARC First Aid and CPR Cards. I really got into the safety program. At one point a few months before we parted ways, they even talked of having run the safety on a $100 million jobsite in Bethesda, Maryland. It became a big part of how I worked.

Back to the story. While on the job in my college town, we (the Superintendent and I) managed safety very closely. More than once I would here guys on the site say "here comes that safety guy" as I walked up. Last Summer while taking measurements for a job at my new company, there was someone working there who saw me and asked "weren't you that safety guy at the ***** project." So I got a reputation.

Anyway, we had gone the entire project without a single safety incident on the site. Until the day we were supposed to have our final punchlist. February 22. I was checking thing in the plant to see that they had been done and could cross them off of previous punchlists when the owner's maintenance manager comes up to me and asks "What's going on." I replied "Not much." And he informs me that and Ambulance and Fire Truck had just pulled in with their lights going. So I immediately proceed to the front of the building to find out what is happening. In the main office, I see the paramedics coming in the door and a crowd around a conference room. I go to investigate and see an electrician's apprentice on the floor and CPR being performed. The paramedics intubate him and place the Defibrillator paddles on his chest. After a few more minutes, the paramedics loaded him on the stretcher and wheeled him out. I remember seeing his face and it was a blue-purple color.

The 911 call was placed at 8:46am by a carpenter who was working in an adjacent room. He along with another carpenter were the first to find the apprentice, as they heard him fall from the ladder he was on. The first carpenter had something like 25 years of experience and of all the people the site to be the first to arrive he was the best option. He had just taken a CPR refresher course the night before. He gave the apprentice his best fighting chance.

About 10:30am, we received a call from one of our guys who we had sent to the hospital, that the apprentice did not make it. 22 years old. His birthday was 364 days after mine. One day shy of one year apart. He had been on the jobsite since the very first day electricians arrived.

In the hours and days that followed, we had a mass influx of people to help respond. Three safety managers, including the corporate safety director, from our company drove the 4 hours in. The construction manager flew in, the project owner's PR rep and Vice President in charge of facilities, along with the owner's site staff-HR, facilities, engineer, Plant Manager. We brought in a couple of counselors. We conducted a investigation to try and figure out what had happened.

The official cause of death, from the Coroner's Inquest which I had to attend (and I hope to never do it again), was determined to be electrocution. The apprentice was on the very top of an 8' ladder (not a safe place to be), working above a 12' ceiling (should have gotten a 12' ladder-there was room), to rewire at lighting fixture after installing a trim escutcheon, on a 277-volt lighting circuit that he had not shut off, locked out and tagged out.

Then to top the day off. About 5:30pm, there was still a crowd of about 12 in out job trailer finishing up for the day and making plans for tomorrow when my cell phone rings. It was my mother. She asked how my day was, so I conveyed the horrible experience. She expressed sympathy, and proceeded to tell me she had to make it worse. A young man who I had gone to school with and had known since we were both in early elementary school, our families have bee friends for nearly 25 years. The young man at the age of 21, had died of an epileptic seizure in his sleep while in his room at his college fraternity house.

2 good young men, both younger than me, gone in the same day. 2 funerals to attend.

It was a terrible day. The worst of my career so far and I hope to never top it. I worked for the GC for another 13 months after that incident. And every single day, I would think about that day, the apprentice, and replay the incident in my head. It was part of why the GC and I parted ways.


Life is precious. We can never tell those close to us that we love them enough. Parents-let your kids know that you love them every day. Kids-tell your parents you love them and appreciate all they do. It may not seem like it now, but they have your best interest at heart. If you can't see it now, you will very soon. Our days on this planet are but few. We are born, we live, we suffer, and we die. Yes, we must all die, for it is a part of life. The key is to make the most of those precious days we have with those whom we love. Until we shall meet again at the spiritual building, the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

But wait, for there is also hope in new life. While our days are but few, we pass to the next generation the wisdom of our days. While we all must die, we all can live. February 22 can be that day for us all. Take hope. For on this day there is New Life. The world can smile in the arrival of D.W. Congratulations to Wes and his wife on this Joyful occasion. Your Joy is a reminder to me that life goes on.


Thanks for listening while I get that off my chest.