After looking at the “humor” section of the archives and finding this post, a reader emailed to reminisce about a very funny Dave Barry column from the 1990s that made fun of bureaucratic stupidity. After a bit of digging, I found a link. Here’s my favorite part of the column, but I encourge you to read the whole thing:
On May 11, two employees of DeBest Inc., a plumbing company, were working at a construction site in Garden City, Idaho, when they heard a backhoe operator yell for help. They ran over, and found that the wall of a trench – which was NOT dug by DeBest – had collapsed on a worker, pinning him under dirt and covering his head. “We could hear muffled screams,” said one of the DeBest employees. So the men jumped into the trench and dug the victim out, quite possibly saving his life. What do you think OSHA did about this? Do you think it gave the rescuers a medal? If so, I can see why you are a mere lowlife taxpayer, as opposed to an OSHA executive. What OSHA did – remember, I am not making this up – was FINE DEBEST INC. $7,875. Yes. OSHA said that the two men should not have gone into the trench without (1) putting on approved hard hats, and (2) taking steps to insure that other trench walls did not collapse, and water did not seep in. Of course this might have resulted in some discomfort for the suffocating victim (“Hang in there! We should have the OSHA trench-seepage-prevention guidelines here within hours!”). But that is the price you pay for occupational health and safety.
P.S. This Dave Barry column has nothing to do with politics or government, but it is very funny and quite accurate.
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hey ‘john smith’ you must have the i.q. of a flunkie groper for tsa !
Jeffrey Lee, P.S.
You sir are correct. There are stories galore where people jump in to save someone and only add to the death toll. While the company should not have been fined, the “rescuers” should be told the folly of their actions. They were lucky this time to say the least. This past spring we lost a trained open water lifeguard, who went in to save his father. His mother not only lost a husband, but a son as well.
I owned a company which worked on mainly large construction sites. My employees were forbidden to enter any manhole of any kind, even new unused ones. Joint sealant can use up all of the oxygen and the oxygen can be sucked out of your body through your pores. So, holding your breath will not work. More people have been killed trying to rescue others in a manhole than those originally in trouble. Secondly, they were forbidden to enter any ditch deeper than their belt under any circumstance, including saving another person. In the above situation, the company that dug a ditch without proper shielding should be permanently put out of business. Yet, if I saw a man in trouble in a collapsed ditch, I must admit, I would jump to his rescue, too. That is human nature.
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These 2 guys, and the company they worked for, just learned a valuable lesson. Never try and do any common sense action, like saving somebodies life, without paying homage to the burocracy first. You just get punished for it. Next time, the guys will just stay put, and let the other guy die, and OSHA can brag about how many workplace lives their regulation saved that day.
[…] Let’s also remember that OSHA generates some bone-headed regulatory choices, such as the crazy example recounted by Dave Barry and this nutty bit of regulatory excess uncovered by my colleague Walter Olson. Rate this:Share […]
There really was nothing funny about this situation. Such rescues can kill the rescuer. See this clip: http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/55393
OSHA later rescinded the violation that Barry mentions, and does not cite similar cases. It’s hard to criticize OSHA’s intent here — which is not to create any more victims.
[…] the way, if you like Dave Barry (and you should), here’s a post about one of his funniest columns, which deals with government stupidity. Rate this: Share […]
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[…] just wish I could write like Dave Barry. He had a hilarious column many years ago that was based on various examples of government stupidity. This post is more likely to make you […]
[…] I’m sure the consumer would have been happy to swallow that additional cost. Reminds me of the classic Dave Barry column I cited in this post. Good to see that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is just as incompetent today as […]
Government can only do one thing well: Break things.
The only two proper uses of this power would be the death penalty and war.
This Dave Berry article that Dan posted is an excellent example of how government bureaucrats cannot think or act efficiently. They can only destroy and undermine the free market. They can only undermine mankind’s efforts to act on behalf of others.