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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife resident and city firefighter Jamie Stringer believes there comes a point when you're at a crossroads and you can go one of two ways.

"You can embrace it as a challenge and not let anything get in your way," Stringer said. "Or you can accept it as your own personal nightmare.

From left, Nick Perry, Paul Da Bello and Jamie Stringer spoke about their workplace tragedies at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre last week at an event put on by the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission. - Andrew Livingstone/NNSL photo

"I took it and embraced it."

Stringer spoke to an audience of 25 people at the Don't Be a Number presentation put on by the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission last week. Stringer, along with Victoria, B.C. resident Nick Perry and Yellowknife resident Paulo Da Bello are all victims of workplace accidents. They spoke about their experiences at the presentation.

Amy Doerksen, communications officer for WACC, said at the start of the presentation that youth need to be more aware of their rights and responsibilities in the workplace.

"As a worker you have the power to not become a number," she said. "You have rights in the workplace. You have the right to know workplace safety and the right to participate in workplace safety training and the right to refuse unsafe work conditions."

In August 2002 Stringer was working at a heavy equipment dealership in Yellowknife. While he was observing a group of technicians using a highly combustible aerosol mixture to fill a tire, it exploded. A 30-pound sealing ring hit him on the left side of his body.

"The tire holds 40,000 pounds of force," he said. "They estimated the ring hit me at over 100 miles per hour."

Stringer was thrown against another machine causing a coma and a compound fracture of his left arm. Six years later he is still working on the life changes from that fateful day. He is told he had large personality changes because of the accident.

"The physical challenges I work at every day to improve them. The head things I've learned to embrace," he said. "I still feel like Jamie but my friends and family said I was different.

"At the end of the day it comes down to attitude. From the bottom up it starts with a good attitude. Each time we're going to engage in an activity we need to stop and think about the possible outcomes. It would have only taken a brief moment to reevaluate what we were doing. Don't be shy to swallow your pride and let them know they are engaging in risky business."

Paulo Da Bello also believes it comes down to attitude. Crushed by the largest drill bit in North America while loading it onto a plane, the pilot was injured severely.

"It drove my left femur through my pelvis," he said. "It caused a radiating fracture in 31 places around my pelvis on my left side. It broke my right hip, dislocated my pelvis from my back, tore three ligaments in my left knee and broke my right ankle."

He went through three surgeries in 10 days in Edmonton and it was 10 months before he returned to work.

"Look at your workplace as if everything is trying to kill you," he said. "You look at stairs and you could trip and fall and break your neck. You need to look at ways to avoid this possibility. It's about being safe and smart.

"Having a positive attitude can really make a difference."

In two seconds Nick Perry's life changed forever.

"There were so many opportunities to walk away and not think about it until someone else could come out and help me," Perry, 26, said.

Perry was working at a lumber yard with his uncle and good friend in 2001 at the age of 19 when his accident occurred.

He was operating a forklift carrying unstrapped wood boards weighing 40 pounds each when the boards shifted. He waited an hour and a half for somebody to help him. That somebody was his friend.

"I had trained him so he had all my bad mistakes, errors and shortcuts and he was no more experienced on the forklift than I was," Perry said. "It was like the blind leading the blind.

"I shifted the load back, turned around and I told him to drop the load."

Five boards slid off the lift and hit Perry in the back. It shoved him forward and five more sheets hit him. It broke his back immediately.

"I couldn't feel my legs below my belly button and my legs slipped out from under me and I landed on my butt." he said. "I was folded in half with my head looking at my feet."

Perry was left an incomplete paraplegic. His spine was not completely severed in the accident but doctors were doubtful he would be able to walk again.

Three years after the accident, with hard work and dedication, Perry was able to walk on his own again.

Perry said it's important for youth to know their rights in the workplace and to be aware of what they are doing.

"I learned through hand-me-down training," he said. "He's been here longer than you and he'll show you what to do. You pick up bad habits and shortcuts and you take that as everyday work. I'm going to keep doing this because it's what I have to do to get my paycheque at the end of the week, never taking into consideration that I had rights."