Pigs Fly As Hell Freezes Over
The impossible happened two weeks ago. Right here on Oahu. A major business admitted it was responsible for an accident!
It seems that a 1,000 pound boulder fell out of a rock quarry and landed in the right-hand lane of the H-1 freeway. A car hit the rock and two people were seriously hurt.
Grace Pacific, the company the owns the quarry, got to the scene of the accident before any of the state highway crews. They removed the rock before they even realized it was theirs. Soon after they discovered that the rock had become dislodged by the own workers who had been trying to secure a section of the quarry to prevent the very sort of rock-fall that had occurred. The President and CEO, Robert Wilkinson, said it was obvious that work at the quarry caused the rock to fall and issued a statement to that effect. Then, as Hugh Hewitt likes to say, comes the money quote:
"You can't demand integrity from your employees if you don't practice it from the top. Our situation wouldn't be any worse if we took responsibility right away. It's better than having lawyers argue over responsibility for months in court and then come to the same conclusion. If we're going to give out money, I'd rather give it to the victims than attorneys."
When asked about the unprecedented display of honesty, Wilkinson replied, "I'm a Midwest boy. I believe things will die down fast if you just tell people what happened and answer their questions up front."
What about the two women injured in the accident? "We sent them flowers in the hospital," Wilkinson said. "And," added VP Sidney Quintal, "we said we were sorry."
Note: All credit for this blog goes to Honolulu Advertiser columnist Lee Cataluna whose article in the December 18, 2004 edition has been liberally summarized and quoted.
It seems that a 1,000 pound boulder fell out of a rock quarry and landed in the right-hand lane of the H-1 freeway. A car hit the rock and two people were seriously hurt.
Grace Pacific, the company the owns the quarry, got to the scene of the accident before any of the state highway crews. They removed the rock before they even realized it was theirs. Soon after they discovered that the rock had become dislodged by the own workers who had been trying to secure a section of the quarry to prevent the very sort of rock-fall that had occurred. The President and CEO, Robert Wilkinson, said it was obvious that work at the quarry caused the rock to fall and issued a statement to that effect. Then, as Hugh Hewitt likes to say, comes the money quote:
"You can't demand integrity from your employees if you don't practice it from the top. Our situation wouldn't be any worse if we took responsibility right away. It's better than having lawyers argue over responsibility for months in court and then come to the same conclusion. If we're going to give out money, I'd rather give it to the victims than attorneys."
When asked about the unprecedented display of honesty, Wilkinson replied, "I'm a Midwest boy. I believe things will die down fast if you just tell people what happened and answer their questions up front."
What about the two women injured in the accident? "We sent them flowers in the hospital," Wilkinson said. "And," added VP Sidney Quintal, "we said we were sorry."
Note: All credit for this blog goes to Honolulu Advertiser columnist Lee Cataluna whose article in the December 18, 2004 edition has been liberally summarized and quoted.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 11:05 PM
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