It can be said at times that the most effective training lesson can be accomplished by showing people what not to do. And when that demonstration results in a bone crushing near death experience, you can be certain that the trainees in your charge will be taking voluminous mental notes in order to protect themselves in the future. Such was apparently the case in the Cincinnati area this week, when the owner of a Newport, KY reptile store was showing an employee how to feed a 20 foot long, 125 pound python snake.
According to police, the store owner had started to feed the massive reptile when it signaled an underlying discontent with the quality of the menu du jour. It did this by latching onto the man's arm, and starting to coil itself around him. Fortunately for him, it appears that his employee trainee had already been through Workers' Comp Safety Lesson Number 1, which involves calling 911 whenever the inventory starts to crush your boss.
There was no mention if anyone attempted a wild animal “snake selfie” while this was occurring.
Responding police found the snake wrapped around the store owners head, neck and torso. They report that there “was blood everywhere” and the man was not breathing when multiple officers were working to free him. He did resume breathing once they were successful in getting the snake off of him. He is recovering at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. It appears he will make a full recovery, and authorities say he “is even talking”.
I have no idea what he is talking about, but if it were me, it would be about selling that damn store and finding a better line of work.
The snake, if anyone cares, was not harmed. Authorities are reviewing the incident with animal control to “determine if the animal will need to be removed from the shop”. Either that or it will get its own reality show on TLC, scheduled somewhere between “19 Kids” and “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo”.
Perhaps the show will be called “Here Comes Human Snack Snack”. Or they could instead combine two shows, pairing the snake with that annoying little beauty pageant troll, and call it “Who Crushed Honey Boo Boo?” That would be an absolute ratings bonanza. I'd watch the entire season of that, although admittedly it would probably only be one show.
But I digress…..
So, here we either have a training lesson that has gone horribly awry, or a brilliant, “show by example” session designed to embed the concept of safety firmly in a trainee's mind. I suspect the former was the actual intent of this particular trainer, rather than the latter, but you never know. It was Kentucky, after all. It doesn't really matter, because I am pretty sure the trainee learned a valuable lesson, even if that lesson is to let the damn snake starve.
It just serves to demonstrate that nothing will work to prevent further workplace injuries like a well thought out and properly executed training regimen. Sometimes a visual lesson will be the one best remembered by those who need it the most.