We work quite a few hours from the time you leave home until
you get back home, usually around 12, 14 hour days.
And you just have to watch for other people.
There's a lot of pumpers out here in the oil field.
And you have to watch for them pulling out on the highway.
We're in such wide open spaces.
Everybody's in a hurry to get there because they've got a
lot of places to go in a day.
You've got to really understand, there's a lot of
accidents out here in the oil field, coming around blind
corners and nighttime.
And roads aren't built for four-lane traffic.
Driving is one of the biggest hazards in the oil field.
We have oncoming traffic, animals.
We work out in the open.
We have cows.
We have deer, all kinds of animals.
And there's a lot of oil field traffic.
I go into a location the other day, there's five different
rigs on location.
And I passed 10 different trucks, trucks moving rigs,
trucks moving water tanks.
Transport trucks, roustabouts, pumpers.
You come to work early, sometimes you stay
late and drive in.
So, it is one of our biggest hazards that we have.
24/7, the oil field never shuts down.
We travel on these roads day and night.
It's not unusual to travel two or three hours a day back and
forth to the rig.
There's people traveling up and down the highway.
After being up 24, 36 hours, all they want is to get home.
Inattentiveness.
There's just a myriad of things that are involved when
you're on the highway.
You see lots of accidents on the road.
Seat belts need to be worn.
I mean, they save lives.
One of the leading causes of fatalities is highway crashes.
And there have been a lot of fatalities happen because of
not wearing seat belts in the vehicles.
And it is a state law.
And all these guys know, if they are caught without a seat
belt and that pickup's moving, they're terminated.
That's the end of it.
It's that big a deal.
And it don't take five seconds to buckle up and be safe.
Yeah, the seat belts is one of our main tools.
I mean, you ain't wearing it, you ain't working here.
Simple.
Let's talk about seat belts.
Seat belts play a very important safety in our lives
because about three months ago, I fell
asleep on the wheel.
And it if hadn't been for the seat belt, I wouldn't be
standing here right now today talking to you all.
Involved in a car accident that could have killed us, put
a good hurt, in fact, on this road right here.
And we weren't using our seat belt.
And thank God nothing bad happened to us.
And if I can't say that I lost a couple of my family members
here not too long ago in an accident, and they were thrown
from the car.
So, that's one of the reasons why I wear my seat belt.
And I want everyone else in my truck to wear the seat belt.
I can speak from personal experience that they do help.
I have rolled a vehicle and walked away from it because I
was wearing a seat belt.
The impact of any accident, even five or 10 miles per
hour, is pretty amazing.
A lot of people don't think about it, but it is.
No matter what speed you're going, a sudden stop can be
pretty dramatic.
Went through a pothole.
Everybody went through it very fast. It would've threw me out
of the seat because these seats are Air Ride.
And you hit a bump very hard and it will throw you through
the ceiling.
And rough forty roads, you're having to swerve and miss a
lot of potholes.
And that way, if you have your seat belt and you wear it at
all times, you don't have to worry about sliding out of the
seat or losing control of the vehicle.
Big truck, that's just more room to get thrown around in
if you're not wearing a seat belt.
And if you're on a dirt road, then you think you're safe,
and you're more apt to have an accident.
These roads are very narrow, paved roads out here.
They're mostly county roads.
And for the most part, they're real narrow.
It's hard for two trucks to pass on the road like this.
A lot of the roads, you'll find, have drop offs
and stuff like that.
And if you slid off it even doing two miles per hour, you
go tumbling down the side of a hill.
You're going to be better off with that seat belt buckled,
keeping you snugged under that seat.
With the vehicle rolled upside down, if you can get the
pressure off of that seat belt, you can push that button
and it'll come undone.
I mean, it comes undone right then.
So no, I don't see that being a problem.
You can see the shoulders drop off.
So, you have to be very careful because those
shoulders are soft.
So, if you accidentally pull off to the side of the road,
it's just going to pull you into the bar ditch.
And if you're not buckled up, then you take a chance of
being ejected from your vehicle.
I've seen several big trucks roll over.
And when they didn't have their seat belt on them, it'd
throw them out.
And then the truck rolled right over the top of them.
People take the big trucks for granted.
Almost every day when I'm driving one of these big
trucks down the road, there's that little car that wants to
get out in front of that big truck so they don't have to go
behind them.
I've had people pull right out in front of me before going
down a highway.
And you ain't got a stop sign or a stop light.
And they'll just pull right out in front of you.
Sometimes on these leased roads, in our intersection,
sometimes they forget that there's other vehicles coming
from the other direction.
And there's no stop signs out there, so they got to be
really careful.
Some people think, I'm just driving from here to there.
And why do we have to put it on?
But I know we use a lot of excuses.
And basically, all it is is excuses.
Forklifts.
There's been a lot of accidents throughout the oil
field with not wearing seat belts and the forklift getting
turned over.
And an employee thinks he can jump out, beat it
from falling over.
Many times, they don't.
That's very important.
You don't have to actually tip over for you to fall out.
You might be driving too fast and turn too sharp.
And you could fall out and they'll run you over.
Forklifts are one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment
we have out here.
If they're not buckled in and not inside that cage secure,
they're at extreme risk.
And if you pick up a heavy load, you could tip it over
and fall out.
So, if you're not wearing your seat belt, then you ain't
going to be making it home that day.
You really ought to make sure everybody has their seat belt.
It's just part of an operator's job.
And it's part of their job to make sure everybody else is
wearing theirs too.
One thing I do anytime I have passengers, I make sure that
they do wear their seat belt.
It's something that hits home whenever you take that risk of
not using the seat belt.
They need to encourage all the time.
The passenger should always be wearing theirs.
And that's another thing in these crew cab pickups.
There's four men in one of the pickups.
And just the driver having on the seat belt is not
sufficient.
The riders in the backseat, they need to have theirs on
because if they were to run into something, those
passengers will come flying over the
seat and hit the driver.
So, that's why it's very mandatory for everyone in the
vehicle to wear a seat belt.
When I'm driving and somebody gets in the truck, I won't
leave until they put their seat belt on.
You have to be responsible enough and liable for yourself
to say, hey, I need to put this on for my own protection.
I've had to remind people to wear their seat belt.
But nobody's had a problem with it.
Exactly.
And at the same time, they give you respect.
They trust in you that you're going to take care of them.
They know that you care for them.
And they got kids too, their wives, and stuff, the same
thing that I want for me.
And I would make sure that they would wear their seat
belts and that they understood the importance why.
We care about their safety.
We just want them to be safe.
Some other people, they don't like to wear the seat belt.
And in my case, if one of my hands decided not to wear the
seat belt, we're not moving from there
and our time is stopped.
I don't put it in gear until they put it on.
If they have a problem with it, they can find some other
way to work.
Same thing when we're going home.
You guys want to go home?
Click it or ticket.
I've got five kids at the house, and I got to come home
every night.
Coming together, we got to make
sure we get home together.
I can't stress it enough.
If you want to go home and see your family at night, I mean,
if nothing else, do it for your family.
As a matter of fact, I got shut down from
my wreck three months.
And I mean, I had great credit and everything before that.
And three months of not working, everything I had got
repoed, taken away, and couldn't use
credit cards anymore.
I had no funds for three months.
And it taught me a lesson that if I'm not able to work for
three months like that, then I'm in trouble.
Exactly that.
You got to have the attitude of, yes, build a great record
for the company you're working for, because that's who's
going to keep you busy.
But also, their kid, their family, they're always
expecting you.
There's been times when I come late home and they're waiting
or whatever, especially my John, because he's looking
through the windows waiting for dad.
I do find that I want to come home to my family every day.
They're still pretty young.
My youngest is nine.
And I want them to grow up with a dad.
And I want to be there to meet my grandkids and be part of
their lives as well.
And the only way I'm going to do that is to look out for my
own safety.
It starts with driving safe and wearing your seat belt.
As a driver, it's your responsibility to you and your
passengers to make sure everybody in your vehicle is
buckled up.
Wearing seat belts prevents injuries and saves lives.
Go ahead and buckle up and be safe, and go home to your
family at night.
Never risk your health, the health of your fellow
employees, your ability to work and take
care of your family.
Always wear your seat belt.