Inuvik (Mar 04/05) - In 1999 Michael Lovett was just like any other 18-year-old. He had a girlfriend, wanted to buy his own car and needed a way to pay for it.

So he went down to the local sawmill in Mission B.C., a small town about an hour north of Vancouver, where he grew up, and got a job.

In plaid shirt, blue jeans and steel toed boots, he went to the mill's office, "nailed the interview" and went to work the same day.

"I looked like a mill worker, but there was a lot I didn't know," he said.

Wanting to impress his boss and co-workers, Lovett worked hard. Three days into his new job, he was offered a round on the nightshift that included cleaning a conveyor belt that moved logs through the mill.

"I was asked to do the graveyard cleanup job and, as I was new, I felt I didn't really have a say so I went along with it."

At this point, Lovett's story, which he shared with the student body of Samuel Hearne secondary school (SHSS) - many of whom will be taking on casual jobs this summer - took a tragic turn.

Working on a moving conveyor belt while cleaning bark from the huge machine, Lovett tripped and his leg was severed below the knee. Only by a miracle, the machine ground to a halt and the workers who discovered Lovett were able to pry him out.

Doctors were unable to save Lovett's leg but he is able to walk with a prosthesis.

His message to SHSS students last Thursday afternoon was that they have the right to be safe on the job and to refuse any work they feel might put them at risk of injury.

"Accidents happen when people take risks," he said, adding that no job is worth their life or health.

"Although I had cleaned the moving machine before and people told me to be careful, I shouldn't have been doing it that way at all."

According to the Workers Compensation Board (WCB), the majority of accidents occur in the retail and food services industry, with 18-to 24-year-olds sustaining more injuries than any other worker demographic.

Part of an NWT WCB initiative, Inuvik's secondary school was the ninth stop on Lovett's most recent workplace safety tour.

He has spent the past couple of years taking this message to young adults on behalf of the WCB.