This is one of my favorite “safety stories.” When I was a full-time safety and health trainer in the nuclear industry, I’d tell it as a way to poke fun. I’d say something like: “If a baboon can have a perfect safety record why can’t you?!”
A century ago, a baboon helped his handicapped master. What did he help his master do?
Run a railroad switching station! 
In 1877, railroad man James Wide had both legs severed in an accident near Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He was reassigned as switchman at the Uitenhage Tower, where he settled into a rundown cabin and befriended a baboon named Jack. Wide had found his man Friday. Jack was extremely intelligent. He learned to pump water from a well, clean house and tend Wide’s garden. Every morning, he pushed his master to work in a handcart that Wide had built to run on rails.
Wide trained his hairy helpmate to perform minor chores at the signal tower, and Jack was soon manning the station. He operated the levers that set signals for approaching trains and managed the tower controls that opened and closed switches on a siding.
When Jack died in 1890, he left behind a spotless safety record with the railroad. In the nine years he served as Wide’s assistant, he never made one mistake that resulted in injury or loss of property.
Have you got a favorite safety story? Let me know about it. richard@makesafetyfun.com
