There are a million ways to teach a lesson, right? You can teach is as a parable, you can show examples, or you can really lay it on and go for maximum impact. The last strategy is apparently what Caterpillar had in mind when they came up with this 1950s safety video called, “The Gambler”. It takes about two minutes of watching to reach the first cringey moment where they show a guy playing Russian Roulette to illustrate the point of “gambling” with your safety or the safety of others on the job site.
If you were wondering how many gruesome ways to die there were and still are in, on, or around construction equipment, just go ahead and watch this video. They paint a stark picture with many different scenes of operators rushing, cutting corners, or doing something wrong. Don’t get us wrong, they are not showing blood and guts but they set up the scenes to give maximum chill effect when the bad situation occurs.
The lessons delivered here are valuable and ultimately keep people alive and minimize risk. The way the message is delivered is more bluntly head on than a wrecking ball but that was the time in which the film was made and frankly it seems far more effective than some mamby-pamby beating around the bush babble.
The underlying message here? Don’t be a dumbass…dumbass.
