As many of you know, I experienced an industrial accident, and I was lucky to be surrounded by smart and caring people who acted fast. A couple days later, working my day job with a mangled claw, I was struck with horror when word of a man pinned by a machine went out over the police radio. It is assumed the man did not make it because the company was not responding to the assigned reporters’ inquiries. Anybody who has been pinned and mangled by a machine appreciates the horror.
The local daily, however, appears to minimize a severed arm. It was just maybe 75% of the arm, and the victim will survive. I shudder. Then, we’re reminded of a guy who worked for the same outfit who got hit in the head with shrapnel from a busted pipe. We are told it was a minor injury treatable with stitches.
We don’t, however, read about traffic fatalities being minor because people weren’t rolled by tanks, or the recent minor motel deaths caused by colorless, odorless CO rather than nerve gas. Why are MSD tragedies so teeny-weeny? It almost sounds as if the paper doesn’t want to taint the reputation of its favorite contestant in the Asheville water war. Second-guessing that, one wonders if some evil industrial “spiker” isn’t out to make accidents happen to cause the MSD look bad. I had only foreseen potential for Moffy to bribe a Greenpeacenik to play “Manon des Sources.”
