From the Vault: The Footrest Error

By Eilene Lyon

Pardon the unattractive photo above. Following up on my last post about Fred Ransom’s on-the-job accident, I thought I’d share my similar experience. Partly due to sheer luck, the injuries to my right foot did not result in the loss of any digits.

I’m not so naïve as to think that workplace injuries and deaths have disappeared due to OSHA. Employers continue to be negligent—or worse—and many victims are undocumented immigrant children working in dangerous professions, such as roofing and slaughterhouses.

My injury came about partly due to my own carelessness, but mostly due to employer negligence. This happened when I was a freshman in college in 1980. I had a job in the dorm cafeteria, working in the dishwashing section of the kitchen. Students finished with their meals would put their trays through a low, wide window and set them on a conveyor belt. As the trays passed by, I would remove the silverware and trash.

There were two conveyors. One was properly enclosed. The other was missing a panel, exposing the motor. It operated with a chain and sprocket, much like a bicycle, but larger and heavy-duty. About 6 inches from the floor was a metal frame that would have held the missing panel. I’d taken to using this bar as a footrest.

One morning during breakfast, I missed the bar and stuck my foot on the moving chain, just where it headed into the gearing. To those in the dining room, I was not visible from the waist up, so as my foot became lodged in the motor, they had trouble discerning where the non-stop screams were coming from.

A maintenance man arrived in short order, hit the emergency shut-off (that I knew nothing about), and disassembled the motor to get my foot out. Fortunately, the shoes I wore had very thick soles, which had stopped the gear’s momentum from completely crushing my foot. I was whisked to the hospital in the one-and-only ambulance ride of my life.

Here’s what really bugs me: I had no clue at that point in my life about things like workmen’s comp and negligence. I recall being asked to sign something while in the hospital to get X-rays and crutches. What it was, I still don’t know. I actually went to work the next day—on crutches—to the astonishment of my boss. Even then, he did not inform me of my right to be paid my wages while I was disabled.

I’ve heard that teens today no longer receive an education in civics while in high school. I think their education is deficient in other ways, too. Are our teens being taught their rights as employees? Are they being taught their rights as tenants? Do they learn how to manage their money, sign leases, read contracts? All of these subjects are things they should have proficiency in before they finish school.

I realized much too late that my employer took advantage of my ignorance. True, I never received any medical or ambulance bills. But they should have had to answer for their negligence in creating a hazard in the first place.

(Yeah, that missing panel miraculously reappeared after this incident.)