As Thanksgiving and Christmas approach we have many classic traditions we celebrate, and one of our favorites here at Thompson Safety is watching holiday movies. Often these movies have flagrant safety violations that would make even the most amateur of safety managers uncomfortable.
So, this year at Thompson Safety we decided to come up with our own list of the top 5 safety violations, as voted on by our team, from some of the most classic holiday movies.
This holiday movie pits Arnold Schwarzenegger against his rival Sinbad as they compete to try and track down this year’s hottest Christmas gift, The Turbo Man action figurine. This movie wastes no time in violating the basics of driver safety. In the opening scene Arnold, late for his son’s karate class, drives recklessly through traffic until he is caught by a police officer. The officer, very annoyed, pulls Arnold over and proceeds to put him through an exhausting field sobriety test making him even later to his son’s karate.
In 1988's Die Hard, John McClane jumps from the roof of Nakatomi Plaza using a poorly secured fire hose tied around his waist rather than proper fall protection with an anchor, connector, and body harness. While this feat is easily performed by the likes of McClane there are about 100 code violations in this short scene alone. Also, the debate is over, it is official Thompson Safety policy that Die Hard is in fact a Christmas movie.
This classic scene shows Ralphie spilling the beans to his mother that for Christmas he would like a Red Ryder Air Rifle. His mother must have been a Safety Manager in another life because she accurately foresees the potential injury on the horizon responding, “No, you’ll shoot your eye out.”. The next scene we see Ralphie shooting his gun while not wearing the proper eye protection and lo-and-behold he nearly shoots his eye out.
Arguably the most popular Christmas comedy of all time this National Lampoon film features Chevy Chase as an accident-prone Clark Griswold. In this scene, there are a number of ladder safety violations we take issue with. While we commend the use of leather gloves when using a staple gun, Clark really should have considered tying off his tools with a lanyard and should have inspected his ladder prior to use. In our opinion he probably should have used a boom or scissor lift at that height.
This years winner features an iconic scene with Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern) attempting to break into the McCallister residence while the family is away on vacation. Our hero, 8-year-old, Kevin McCallister, is still at home where he has set up boobytraps throughout the property. As our villains begin their raid on the house they can’t get up or down the stairs without repeatedly falling (sustaining injuries along the way). We suggest maybe trying three-points of contact or better yet ice cleats for those icy staircases.
That’s it! The definitive list of our 2022 top 5 safety violations, holiday edition. If don't agree or think we missed something, feel free to make a recommendation in the comments or email us. We may include it on next year’s list!
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Thompson Safety would like to wish all our team members, current customers, future customers, and vendors a happy and safe holiday season.
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Thompson Safety® is a full-service safety company, based in Houston, TX. Thompson Safety supplies first aid, safety supplies & PPE, AED, eyewash, fire extinguisher and training services onsite, helping safety and EHS professionals more efficiently manage their safety programs. To learn more, visit www.thompson-safety.com or follow Thompson Safety on LinkedIn. Looking to join the Thompson Safety team? Please visit: www.thompson-safety.com/company/careers
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