Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

In the pits with my safety glasses

I go to wipe my eyes for a second.... a guard tells me to put on safety glasses. Ten minutes later I wipe my eyes again ..... hey put those safety glasses on. A blairing anouncement over the pit announcing system "safety glasses must be worn or OSHA will shut us down".


Go watch a match, two feet in pit area while cleaning glasses on my shirt,,,,,,,,, Sir you need to put safety glasses on.


This is just day one. Repeat for four more days.

I am all for safety, and yet this was way overboard.

Did this happen at other regionals?

yes... and no
 

At two regionals I attended they didn't push safety glasses at all, no announcements or anything. However, at UTC, they reminded everyone about it every 10 minutes over the pit intercom, but nobody personally approached you to remind you to put them on. It sounds like they did go a little overboard.


erin

At VCU, they were really extreme about these things. There were 2-3 people in the pits at all times looking for people without safety glasses on. Announcements every 5-10 minutes.

Doesn't this create a problem that there isn't any way for visiters to borrow safety glasses, yet they are encouraged to wander around the pits? I got bugged when I wasn't even close to ANY robot.

And you thought the Soup Nazi was bad....return of the Safety Glasses Nazis!!!

its just the little crew people on their power trips, i just laugh at them after awhile (and i did have my saftey glasses on, they were just on top of my head :))

asher

...the rules
 

Don't get me wrong.....wearing saftey glasses is never a BAD idea....and better safe than sorry.....BUT.....


S3. Team members must wear safety glasses when working on their robot in the pit area. They are also highly recommended if adjacent neighboring team(s) are working on their robot(s).


The RULES APPENDIX seems reasonable....some regionals just went a little overboard.

Lisa T :)

While safety glasses are a good idea, I do think that the officials at some regionals went a little overboard on enforcement. It's really bad when the people enforcing the rule aren't wearing them.

Oh yeah Greg....at MMR there was the Safety man, a FIRST official who was wearing a hard hat and no safety glasses...but he went around yelling at people to put their safety glasses on....Although Friday and Saturday I did not see anyone walk around...

i remember the safety glasses guy a MMR. He just kinda glared at u until u put them on. though they werent really all that strict about it as at some points most of our team was standing there after a match and not many had safety glasses on.

I heard this as a rumour... I dunno if it is true but during the Canadian Regional, a girl from another team just pulled her safety glasses just to the tip of her nose so that she could rub her eye. And one of the officials told her that she isn't allowed to do that cuz you could get disqualified.

I just think it is a little overboard. As if the 5 feet by 5 feet sheet of plexi glass isn't enough....

I mean, what is wrong with rubing your eyes? If someone's eyes are agitated, it probably means there is something in them. And if there is something in her eyes, it probably means:
1) the safety glasses arn't working anyways
2) it is better to be able to remove that "thing" out of your eyes than let it sit there and make your eyes water and even go partically blind.

I dunno, I just think the rule is a little strict.....

I mean, I was a camera guy, sitting on the side, pretty close (liek 4 feet) to the field, WITHOUT plexi glass between me and the field, WITHOUT safety glasses and no one complained.

At both regionals I attended (Philly and Toronto) the kept announcing that everyone in the pits must wear safety glasses and that everyone out on the field must have them on, also that the FIRST crew members must have them. No one went around the pits checking for them. The sad part is that more then half the crew members did not wear them either............

At the Buckeye regional they stressed safety glasses but there wasn't anyone (that I saw) going around telling people to put them on.
At the WMR things were different. Announcements every 15 minutes, officials telling people to put them on and people asked to leave the pits.

Wayne Doenges

Since I was actively looking for people without safety glasses as the judge for the MOEward for safety, I was shocked at the Philly regional by how few people were wearing safety glasses. I can see how some people might have it slip their mind, but I reminded them and they still didn't put them on. Trust me people, wear your safety glasses. The image of a pair of safety glasses with a piece of metal permenately lodged in it keeps my memory on it and the glasses over my eyes.

At KSC i dont rember the saftey goggles being that big of a deal, we had ours on always in the pit, but I never saw anyone going around teling people to put glasses on. They announced it everyso often. But then again we are the First regionals so usually there is lots of chaos cause lots of things dont work the way they plan.



Andrew

I was never threatened with a DQ in canada and my glasses were not on as often as they should have been. That said, I always had them on when i thought it was appropriate, using tools, on the field, and during matches.

Our team is pretty lax about wearing safety goggles, and we were only reminded once when a judge passed by and saw us working. Were more afraid of large, blunt objects since our robot last year was very clumsy.

Stephen - you had a guard in the pit area at regionals? I dont remember seeing any at KSC except a very serious looking guy from the swat team near the stage during the award ceremony.

if i recall correctly the announcer at philly threatned many times to send out the attack monkeys on any who wasnt wearing saftey glasses...i was almost hoping for the monkeys but of course safety comes first.

May I recommend everyone go out and buy some COMFORTABLE safety glasses. For the cost of about $10 you can buy a pair with adjustable sides and nosepads and an overall better form factor then those cheap horridly uncomfortable ( and constantly fogging) glasses suplied by most teams. A comfortable pair you call your own will make you much less likely to pull them off constantly. I have even forgotten I am wearing mine. Try checking out your local hardware store ( I got mine at Lowes). The emphasis on safety glasses varies widely from regional to regional. At KSC we wore ours but I never saw anyone asked to put them on in the pits, there seemed to be absolutely no enforcement except for the drive teams, and even that was lax (we were allowed to remove them in the staging area behind the feild). At MMR it was much stricter, with the MMR Safety Man going around making sure people wore them (humourously, he caught our sw guy (who was frantically programming some expiremental code on a laptop) somewhere between 20-30 times, to the point where he just kinda gave him a look everytime he came by, which immediatly cuase our sw guy to put his glasses back on). I honestly do not think we have a right to complain about how a regional decides to enforce safety glasses. It is after all their property, and they are the ones responsible when a student loses an eye. It is fully within their right to mandate we wear the glasses, even if they themselves dont.

Yeah. KSC was really lax. So was SBPLI. At both the drive teams all had to wear them, of course, and that was well-enforced, but in the pits nobody said anything to any member of our team - and we had a lot of people running in and out of the pits constantly.

Well, of course, at Long Island the monkeys weren't trained to attack. They were, according to the announcer, under the scorer's table operating the ScoreFIRST DB instead.. :rolleyes:

The monkeys hurt! :)
OW, with the claws and the HURTING!

the only person for guidanced I can turn to is prof. frink :
-"the goggles, they do nothing!"
-"that monkey is going to pay!"

LI was lax about this also but most were following the rule (in cluding me since my were wired on my body and I had no choice! :rolleyes: , I did get alot of "whats that?" though :D )

The constant reminders may be part of the insurance: 'we kept telling them, they chose to ingnore'. That type of thing.
That said, the spectaters could sit within 10 feet of the field at VCU, and I think there is a greater chance of stuff flying from a bot collision then in the pits. They still should be warn in the pits.
/me is still waiting on implantable robotic eyes.
Any teams want a summer project...:)

Safety Glass Nazis
 

The WMR was REALLY bad. Every time I took off my safety glasses to rub my eye I was tapped on the shoulder within 3 seconds to get a stern warning to put them back on. I believe I was tapped on the should about 12 times on Thursday alone (and that is not an exaggeration).

There were actually two guards whose full time jobs were to walk around and check for safety glasses. It was kind of funny to watch them as they went around to each pit and look closely at every face to check for safety glasses. Most of the people were calling them "the safety goggle nazis".

As a decoration, we have a stuffed one-eyed monster (from Monsters, Inc.) on the front of our robot. Just to make fun of the safety goggle nazis, we made a special goggle for his one eye. It looked just like regular safety glasses except it only had one lens over its eye. I wish I had a picture to attach to this post. I know at least a dozen people came over with cameras to take a picture. If someone reading this has a picture, please send it to me.

-Chris

At the CR, it wasn't that bad. They announced you to have your glasses on, and when you went on to the field, they freaked about it, atleast to our team. Eather that that, they didn't really care too much about the glasses....

I know it's kind of funny to be hitting on the "goggle nazis" but I have seen some pretty ugly crashes in the pits, on the way to the field and in staging that make me cringe everytime I think about what would have happened if the glasses were not on. (One cracked the lens of the wearer)
Nobody says you can't decorate them with your team colors or used colored (tie dyed)chums to keep them around your neck.
Al

At SV and LA, where i was on crew both times, the safety glasses rules were moderately enforced on the pits and totally enforced on the field. We had several near misses on the practice day with people out on the feild and accidently bumping their head/face on the robot because of gettign hit by a ball that had missed the goal. THe purpose of safety glasses is NOT to be a burden on you, but for your own safety. As an EMT, one of the things we kept learning and reviewing in EMT class is how sensitive the eyes really are. It does not take too much force to seriously damage them. FIRST would hate it if someone's eyes were injured in a preventable accident. So people, please do not rag on the "goggle nazis" or whatever you call them. They are there for your safety, are only volunteers and human, and only want the best for you. Besides, is it gracious professionalism to ignore the rules set up by FIRST?

The Bottom Line
 

The "Safety Glasses/Attack Monkeys/Goggle Nazis" discussion has been interesting.

Being a professional at DuPont, safety is ingrained in each employee. It is part of our job.

When the Miracle Workerz joined FIRST, one our biggest concerns was safety. I know that we cannot control what others do or even how FIRST enforces (or does not enforce) safety rules. However, what we can do is to teach our team members to act safely. We do our best. It is difficult, but it is worth it. We are constantly concerned about the personal tragedy and the future of our program if one of our team members got hurt during the season.

Think about it for a minute, we have industrial strength devices that we are working on for months. During the build phase, we are in a fairly controlled environment. Then we go to a venue where we are in a confined space with 30-60 other groups who are sawing, drilling, routing, etc. THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS ENVRIONMENT. The least people can do is to wear safety glasses. Yes, they are sometimes very uncomfortable. But losing vision in your right eye will be even more uncomfortable. I do not mean to preach about this, but we all really take for granted that no one will leave the pits on a stretcher after a competition. Teams need to take responsibility for keeping themselves and others as safe as possible.

I was amazed when I saw stream after stream of elementary school students and middle school students shuffling through the pit in Philly. Don't get me wrong. I believe it is a great experience for these youngsters to have. However, if one of them gets hurt, FIRST will suffer.

In Florida, please be safe. The Miracle Workerz will try to have extra safety glasses, but will only be able to bring a limited amount with us.

Let's hope we all leave the pits and the competition as healthy as we entered.

See some of you in Florida.

-J-
:(

I bought my own nice, comfortable safty glasses. I saw some at Home Depot, but did not like them. I found mine at (I think) a hobby shop. They where $14, but work like a charm. I keep them clean and I forget I am wearing them.
Get used to wearing them and get wierd looks at McDonalds and Chick-fil-A when you wander in wearing goggles.:D

at SVR, they were pretty strict about wearing the safety glasses. It got to be a big concern for our team, with everyone searching like mad for them right before each match.
Personally, I think it is a little silly to require the drivers/human players/coaches to wear goggles. How in the world can they get hurt behind that wall? It seems like they would be much more likely to get hurt on the way to the match, with the crowds of people walking around, than AT the match...
just my 2 cents

The thing that bothers some of us isn't whether you should be wearing them or not *that's a given* it's whether you should get yelled at for taking them off to clean them or to wipe you eyes.

Also, I find it oxymoronic to encourage non-particapants to go down and take a look into the pits and not provide borrower glasses for them.

I agree safety glasses are necissary, it's just the methods are a problem...

SAfety glasses at Nationals
 

It appears that FIRST reads these post! The way the safety glasses at nationals was handles..... was the best I've ever seen. Two thumbs-up for FIRST!

I didn't see any enforcement in the pit at all. The only time i heard warnings and such were on the fields before play. I saw many many people in the pits without safety glasses and no one told them anything. The pits were quite chaotic and such tho, so many random people walking in and out, so i guess it would be near impossible to patrol everyone.

I always thought it *really* dumb that the teams were placed behind .5" worth of polycarbonate sheet, and had to wear safety glasses, while the judges, referees, and feild crew were placed *closer* to the robots, with no protection, and did *not* have to wear glasses. That's a good example to set.

Also, like was mentioned before, I believe the rule book only states that glasses must be worn while *working* on the robot. That makes sense to me. If FIRST really is paranoid enough to want people to wear safety glasses as long as they are anywhere on FIRST grounds, perhaps they should revise the rule book!

Just my thoughts...

Re: yes... and no
 

Hehe, the guy making the announcement at UTC was maybe 10 feet behind our spot in the pit, and every time he made that announcement, he looked right at us and our bare eyes.

I can't remember anyone on the field not wearing safety glasses. I can tell you that during one post season (Rumble at the Rock, Plymouth, Mass.)a robot was forced out and over the playing field border just missing a field attendant. So, it is important that anyone near the field needs to be wearing glasses.
Al

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

as for what was done that was a bit overboard, at the SoCal regional, i think it was the second or third day, if someone was in your pits without safteys on, your team would have 10 pts deducted from your next match. i am not sure if it was ever enforced, but i still think its too harsh

as for times when safteys not only didnt help, but actually made it worse, well, during a mini meet 2 years ago, a human player was on the field resetting it, he got nailed in the head with a soccer ball; his glasses shattered and cut open his eyebrow requiring him to go to the hospital and getting stitches. also, when a friend of mine was working on a tape drive, something malfuntioned and the tape got wedged under his safteys, scratching his cornea, however because of the safteys he could not immediatley get it away and suffered the wrath of saftey goggles...

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

Wow, did this thread get resuscitated!

Well anyway, at the UTC regional on Saturday a FIRST volunteer was walking around and actually going into the pits reminding everyone to wear safety glasses. I was there when he came into our pit and checked on us. I don't know if that was a one time thing or if he kept walking around (I was only there on Saturday).

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

I was told that if a team igonores the safety glass warning enough they can be penalized by taking away points.
I work on a factory floor and they won't penalize you or scold you.
They will fire you.
Before I started working at Xerox a guy on a neighboring line took his own eye out with a screwdriver. I'm just glad I never witnessed it.
I'm bringing my own pair of safety glasses from work. Just to be safe.

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

At ucf they had the 10 point penalty in effect, i too donot know of any cases of this rule being enforced, but overal wearing safety glasses is a must. Ive heard and seen some pretty nasty things that have happened because people refused to wear saftey glasses. If its really that big of a deal for you to not wear saftey glasses then you shouldnt be in the pit, just like Jay said, in the workplace when you are on the floor of a shop you are REQUIRED to wear saftery glasses. On our team we had each student order thier own pair of glasses, so they all got to pick out ones they liked. It worked really well because after that they never had an excuse or really complained.

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

(In response to the post bout the SoCal regional)

Yeah, at LA, we got ten points taken off the next match if you were caught without safety glasses. The sad part about this was, i dont think it was enforced fully. I only saw one match get penalized for it, while everyone else got warnings. It sux for the one team i saw get points taken away, because not everyone else that violated the rule did.

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

In Sacramento 10 point penalties in the next round were threatened for not wearing safety glasses. I'm not sure if any penalties were ever administered, though.

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

While I generally wear my safety glasses constantly (I tend to forget i'm wearing them), the control placed on them at Philly bordered on insane. There was a volunteer who constantly walked through our area of the pit screaming at us to get them on.

On two seperate occasions, I remember being yelled at. Once, I was 6-10 feet from any pits, leaning against a wall, head down reading some papers. Alright, fine. The part that really got to me was the time she yelled at one of our engineers who has prescription safety glasses about it. When he explained that his glasses could probably take a hit better than the safety glasses we wore, she told him that he should still put some on because he forgot his side shields. Since I wasn't doing anything on the bot, I gave him mine, but then she personally escorted me out the door of the pits, outside. It was insane.

I understand the importance of the glasses, but a kind reminder that FIRST is not responsible for the loss of your eyes would have done instead of the screaming.

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

I can't stand those people that just hover around your pit looking to take ten points away from you!!! :mad:

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

When I was volunteering at NYC in field setup I was asked to keep my safety glasses on at all times....and then later, told to put them back on after I hadn't remembered to put them back on my nose :)

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

I just heard that FIRST made a purchase of 150 Taser guns from Taser International. Anyone in a pit without glasses is going to get a sharp sudden reminder.

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

I yelled at our students all the time to get there glasses on. It doesn't matter if you are working on a robot or just sitting in the pits you could still get hurt. You have teams all around you working on their robots. They use dremels, drills, saws, etc. if one of the blades breaks it can travel far! Trust me I've seen it. I've seen broken cut off wheels travel well over 100 feet and tag someone in the chest. It cut thru his apron, shirt and into his skin. He was okay. So I can't say I blame them for being stricked about this. You may thank them the next time something comes and hits your glasses. I have to wear saftey glasses every day and I am happy to wear them. My saftey glasses get hit at least once a day with something and let me tell you, you can't move fast enough. This is one of the most important saftey rules they have. So I guess I don't see what the problem is. If you are in the pits others are working even if you aren't so put on your glasses. If you say they hurt or they make me sweaty then just talk to someone who lost their eye and see what they say.

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

As an inspector at GLR and MMR, I would not inspect a robot if anyone present (on the team) did not have safety glasses. (Boy, Am I strict or what?) At GLR we inspected in the pit so it was doubly important. At MMR it was crowded in the pits so glasses were absolutely needed. Bring your safeties for inspection at Nationals.

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

A reasonable safety rule. VOLUNTEERS who are having to enforce it. It's a none issue.
I was gently reminded twice in Annapolis. I wish the person that "borrowed" my special glasses in Annapolis would return them. I mean, who wants to be me? They have my name all over them ??!! I was fond of them...

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

At the Southern California Regional, I didn't nearly have the same amount of trouble as the starter of this thread. In fact, I had to wipe my eyes many times due to my glasses, and the safety patrol didn't come after me. We did have one student who was not wearing glasses for a moment before the announcement that they were required was made, and he was told to wear some, but that was our only incident. We had many aprents come to the pit area on saturday and no one was instructed to put on any safety glasses, although we had just finished our last match, that may have had something to do with it.

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

They do go overboard with the whole safety glasses thing. At AZ regional they were yelling at someone over the intercoms every five minutes.

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

For those of you complaining about the safety glasses, is it because you don't want to have to wear safety glasses, or because you don't like the way the announcements and such were handled? If it's the latter, do you have any suggestions on how to make sure people wear the glasses, but not be so annoying?

Re: Tackle that person with no safety glasses
 

Promise the team with the highest percentage safety glasses on, a brand new mill. Then get them a cookie cutter punch.

Perhaps I shouldn't have revealed the secret behind the mill so early...