SAFETY
conferences, tradeshows and construction
industry gatherings.
He feels if he can reach just one person
and persuade them to put safety first, something
good will have come from his ordeal.
“Telling my story is therapy for me,” said
Giguere. “It’s my way of taking a terrible
thing and trying to turn it into a positive. I’m
gone a lot; I’m on the road a lot. I miss my
family. But if just one person says they’re not
going to do that unsafe thing they did last
week, if I could have that impact, it would
make everything I went through at the bottom
of that trench worthwhile.”
When he speaks, Giguere wears his
boots, jeans and a work shirt. He is the first
to say he’s not a professional speaker. His
“just one of us” appearance enables him to
connect with his audiences, but it’s his passion
that really drives the message home.
“I don’t want to be a professional speaker;
that wasn’t my goal. What I am is a guy
who went to work every day and who busted
his ass eight, 10, 12 hours a day to make
a paycheck. But I’m the guy who got caught
doing things the wrong way.”
Giguere has had men approach him
after his presentation to say they’ve never
thought about it from the perspective of
their loved ones.
“I tell them, ‘If you do take that shortcut,
what could happen? Think about it.’ I just
try to be honest. This is who I am.”
He speaks of the job he was working that
day, where his inexperience and disregard
for safety combined with his supervisor’s
complacency. The man had been digging
ditches for 30 years, not always following
proper safety procedures, and nothing had
ever happened before.
He also speaks of gradual transitions to
unsafe situations.
“We didn’t start out doing it wrong. We
started the right way, working in four-foot
trenches, but as we went down the road
a little way, the trench got a bit deeper as
the landscape changed. The next thing you
know we were at five feet, then six. When
we reached that five-foot mark, we should
have dug the trench way back or put a
trench box in, which we didn’t have. There
were numerous things that should have
been done.”
In a sad and ironic twist, a trench box – a
steel box that is designed to protect workers
in the event of a cave-in – had in fact
been ordered for the job site. It arrived just
after Giguere had been taken to hospital.
He tells his audiences not to trust their
safety to anyone else. Learn the rules, take
the training and know what safety equipment
should be on a site and how to use it.
Most of all, he encourages them to speak
up if they notice something unsafe.
“The message is: Don’t be complacent.
These accidents can happen to you.
Ultimately, if you don’t follow those safety
procedures and you don’t do things the
right way, it will be you and your family
that pay the price – not the company.”
He advocates designing workplace
safety programs with worker input.
“Everybody who goes to work has
somebody they love. If we can build the
safety program around that, people will
work safe for themselves and not for
the company.”
Giguere knows he’s lucky to be able to
share his story, and he plans to keep talking
as long as people will listen.
“I should have died that day. The fact
that I lived makes me feel I have a voice for
everyone who never made it out of a trench
or died on a job site. I have an opportunity to
make a difference.
“I feel like this is the reason why I lived.” t
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