Our passion comes from personal experience, and comes from the top down. Our founder experienced how much life can change after a workplace accident: Randy’s father broke his back in a preventable workplace fall. That was in 1962 when workers’ compensation insurance was not available. As a child, Randy experienced first-hand the trauma on all family members when the bread winner can no longer work. A family with four children under age seven experienced difficult times both emotionally and financially, while Randy’s father tried to find a job that didn’t put stress on his back and where he could earn a decent wage. Randy’s father has had to live with permanent back pain the rest of his life.

Then 38 years later, as a father himself, Randy’s life changed again when his youngest son fell 26 feet on the third day working at a summer job as a racking installer, sustaining extremely serious injuries. He suffered a damaged liver, broken ribs, punctured lung, internal bleeding, lost teeth and both forearms were shattered. A panel that was not tack-welded on the leading edge slipped out as Randy’s son and another worker walked to the scissor lift to get down from the racking at end of the day.

During the investigation into his son’s fall, it was determined that the lack of training and supervision was the primary failure. While Randy’s son had identified the risk and requested fall protection, he was told it was not needed, and that he could find another job if he had an issue with that.

Workers' compensation provided minimal compensation during time to heal and limited retraining, however no long term compensation. Randy’s son’s work options were limited with damage to his forearms, however he was fortunate to find other employment – just not in the field he had wanted and had started post-secondary education for. Not all are that lucky, however. The results of injuries can be damaging to family relationships and negatively impact their futures. Randy’s son will always suffer with pain that will never go away, and as he ages, he is likely to have more issues with arthritis in arms.

Randy dedicated the growth of Hazmasters to creating safer work environments. To make Hazmasters a place that not only supplies the product, but also inspects, tests and services it. To make readily available the correct and safe education of workers and supervisors. To complete the solution with fit testing, tool box talks and to work in concert with everyone who has hazards in the workplace.