Branscombe Asphalt Maintenance man and Teman Road resident George Rizzardo has walked into a door, bumped his head on a support column and bloodied his nose on a backhoe bucket – all because he bought a new pair of steel-toed shoes off the Shoe truck and he keeps looking down at them.“Wow, that last one really hurt,” said the proud owner of a pair of size 11 high-top Red Wing brand steel-toe work boots, bought through payroll deduction for $57.25, as he held a blood-tinged tissue in his right nostril in the shop sick bay. “Those backhoe buckets are pretty unforgiving.”
Red Wing Shoe rep Harley Race said he keeps tissues and band-aids handy in his truck for such emergencies. “You wouldn’t believe the number of guys who buy a brand new pair of shoes, then promptly walk into something the rest of the day because they’re looking down at them. It’s like an epidemic.”
Branscombe had to go so far as to post warnings and yellow strips on such low-hanging shop hazards as overhead doors and machinery to help workers avoid walking into them to cut down on lost work time. “We always see an uptick in employee accidents just after the shoe truck arrives.” Says shop nurse Anna Carson. “In fact we had to ask Red Wing and other shoe sales vehicles to give us paycheck stuffers the week before to warn employees about the hazards of walking around a shop full of low equipment wearing a brand new pair of work shoes.”
“And I would like to point out,” says Branscombe Loss Prevention Director Charles Hestor, his neck wattle jiggling. “That no worker’s comp claims will be processed as a result of new shoe-related accidents. This is a work place, not a day care.”
