By Dongyun Kwon
The story of a Yarra Ranges resident becomes the basic source of a course for Year 11 and 12 students in Victoria.
James Wood has shared his workplace injury experience to educate employees, employers and management teams on the real impact of workplace injury for over 25 years.
Mr Wood was a diesel mechanic.
In 1985, on his way to a parking bay after fixing a truck, he lost control of the truck.
“It was five to nine in the morning, so I thought if I could get back to the lunchroom by nine o’clock, I could catch up with my workmates,” Mr Wood said.
“I put my foot down a little bit, was going a little bit too quick, I lost control of the truck and the truck ended up rolling on the side of a hill.
“I got thrown out of the cabin, broke my back and damaged my spinal cord.”
Mr Wood said the accident happened due to his lack of safety awareness.
“The reason I got thrown out of the truck that day was obviously I was going too fast and I didn’t have a seatbelt on,” he said.
“I made some wrong choices and ended up in a wheelchair for the rest of my life.”
Mr Wood decided to use his experience to prevent others from a similar tragedy.
He established a small safety training consultancy CNB Safe based in Yarra Glen with some other speakers who experienced a workplace injury.
Mr Wood and his teammates have gone around Australia to share their stories to raise workplace safety awareness.
“When I first got asked to share my story at a workplace over 25 years ago, initially, I didn’t want to do it because I was a diesel mechanic and I’d never stand in front of people to do public speaking,” Mr Wood said.
“But then I thought it’s the thing that I would have liked to listen to, if somebody, who experienced an injury, turned up at my workplace and shared their story, it might have given me a little bit more of a reason to think about some of the choices that I made that day.
“So I started off the business myself and my wife started working with me and then we had other people approached to us to work with. We go out to workplaces all around Australia, share our stories and try to stop what happened to us from happening to somebody else.”
When Covid hit the world and all Victorians were stuck in lockdown, Mr Wood wrote a book based on his experience.
The book It Hurts! is about how the injury changed Mr Wood’s life.
The Vocational and Applied Learning Association (VALA) has launched a new program Disability Inclusion and Workplace Health and Safety: It Hurts! Expo based on Mr Wood’s book.
The program is a community and workplace-focused school program targeted at young people in Year 11 and Year 12 who are undertaking the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Vocational Major (VM).
VALA CEO Helene Rooks said VALA launched the program at VCE VM induction day.
“It’s a really good way for young students to learn about both disability inclusion and workplace safety,” she said.
“We got really positive feedback during the conference because teachers were really looking for meaningful programs rather than going back to textbooks, workbooks and worksheets.”
