Today is the International Day of Mourning for Workers Killed on the job. I want to remind all readers to just take a moment to perhaps remember someone you have known that has lost their life on the job. If you are fortunate enough not to have lost a friend or colleague, then take a moment and think how you can make your work place a safer place for all. It could be as easy as encouraging your fellow workers to take the crosswalk and looking both ways as they cross the street, but do it.
In Feb. of 1999, we here in the Vancouver media lost one of our own. He was killed, on the job while raising a microwave mast into overhead powerlines while preparing for a hit into the noon show. It happened in an instant and our friend was gone. Yes, that quick.
Geoff Fisher worked for BCTV at the time and was always the life of any party. His death shocked all of us in Vancouver. In television we cover such events, but they are rarely one of our own.
Geoff's death made us all realize how vunerable we are in the field and caused all news gathering organizations to look at themselves and their systems to learn and improve so that we would not again experience such a loss.
If you check out the ENG Safety link you can learn more about some of the hazards we face daily bringing the news to our viewers.
Since that terrible day, we have made significant improvements in our safety systems as it relates to news gathering. But it is an on going exercise. We must remain vigilant and alert. We owe it to our families to come home in one piece.
So be safe out there.
Please take a moment and remember Geoff and others like him, for the world is a bit more empty without them.
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