Communicating safety - Electrical Safety Office wins international award
Queensland worker, Jason Daniels, is an electric shock survivor and his story has taken out a major award at an international safety event.
Queensland’s Electrical Safety Office (ESO) submitted Jason’s story into an awards category that forms part of the World Congress on Safety and Health at Work event.
Jason Daniels’ story – surviving an electric shock from overhead powerlines, has been heralded for its effectiveness to influence how others think and react to safety issues and convey injury prevention messages.
More than 300 entries from around the globe were vetted by the awards panel that forms the International Media Festival for Prevention - these were shortlisted to 50 submissions, then narrowed further to a finalist list of only 18 and across six categories. The Queensland submission was the only Australian entry to make the final 18.
At the special awards ceremony hosted in Sydney, the film about Jason Daniels’ brush with death after he received a massive electric shock from an overhead powerline was announced as the winning submission in the ‘Tell me a story’ category.
At the time of Jason’s incident, the Queenslander from Dalby was only 17-years-old and working on a small farm, but his life was changed forever when the grain auger he was moving contacted a powerline.
The shock was so strong that Jason later clinically died and was resuscitated in hospital. While he lives to tell the story, he feels the suffering of extensive burns, the loss of several toes, and ongoing painful arthritis.
Jason spent two excruciating months in hospital, endured nine operations, battled years of skin grafts, and today, finally, is on the road to recovery.
Jason still remembers the ordeal, and while his life is moving ahead, the bigger challenge of keeping our young workers safe at work is brought into stark relief through his story.