by Tonya Cheek
The word excuse, like alibi, comes from Latin and originally had a legal meaning, namely, to take out of or remove from a lawsuit. People in law enforcement find that the same situation gives rise, time after time, to the same excuses or alibis. Those accused of crimes stemming from drunkenness are apt to say they “just had a couple of beers” and those who come late say it was because “my watch was slow.”
Likewise with “safety violators,” the excuses they use usually fall into a few simple categories:
- The equipment was at fault.
- Another person prevented the violator from following the rules.
- The offender was set up by his or her “supervisor(s).”
- The violator experienced an unexplainable memory lapse.
Sometimes, however, there are excuses which defy categorizing: Doug Brightmoser was arrested in Nashville on a neighbor’s complaint that he was firing a shotgun into the air at night. Brightmoser explained in court that he was not firing to cause trouble but was shooting at a snake that was “trying to milk” a goat in his yard. Once a carpenter told me he wasn’t wearing his hard hat because he had sore feet. I didn’t ask for an explanation. I simply handed the man his head protection and suggested he visit a podiatrist.
I always have a fantastic excuse or two ready to challenge employees I find “cheating.” It takes the steam out of their line of defense. So, the next time someone tells you they weren’t “tied off” for fill in the silly reason here, just tell him or her about the woman in Florida who said she stole an ambulance because she had to get to work on time. Or tell about the driver who sent police on a 15-minute high-speed chase in Howard County Maryland because someone, without his knowledge, had put “racing gas” in his car!
