Sven's summer safety summary

  • Published
  • By Andy Swenson
  • 319th Air Base Wing Safety Office
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  As the critical days of summer wind down and we look forward to the windy days of winter, we need to keep safety in our sights. It has been a great summer, and for the most part the base was able to avoid the mishaps we talked about.

I witnessed some close calls with the children popping out from between parked cars and people running the stop sign at Tuskegee and H Street. But as far as I know no one was struck by lightning this summer -- bonus. This isn't to say that everyone ran inside when the giant voice warned lightning within five miles of the base while half of them that did came right back out with a camera in hand, but no one was struck nonetheless.

We had a sunny and safe Fourth of July, although I did hear some good stories about the off base dirt road battle field extravaganza. If you are looking to collect some auto insurance money you might want to check this spot out next year.

I have checked the injury reports from the clinic and am happy to announce that not one person on base removed their toenails with the weed whacker or cut their feet off with a push mower. And as far the doggy land mine mishaps go, well those people know who they are.

Unfortunately there have been plenty of weed tickets waiting in people's doors when they come home from work. I can only guess who the base housing residents would like to see go away if we need to cut back on base personnel positions.

Although the backyard fire season is just now reaching its true potential there have not been any reports of neighborhoods burning down ... yet, knock on wood.

When all is said and done we had a very good and safe summer. However, we have a huge four day weekend to get through without any major mishaps. That starts with no drinking and driving Thursday night after the football game and no tackle football in the parking lot during the tailgating parties. A lot can go wrong in 96 hours, so let's keep our heads in the game.

Then after this weekend we will start talking about not running over children on Halloween, not feeding under-cooked turkey to your in-laws, not falling off the roof hanging Christmas lights and not reaching in to unclog the chute on your snow blower without shutting it off first. The message you should be getting here is that safety is not only a one season event, it is a part of your everyday life, and it's up to you to be as safe as humanly possible to prevent a mishap from occurring.