Debi Koehler-Fergen on the Importance of Workplace Safety Standards

Debi Koehler-Fergen
Las Vegas, Nevada

I lost my 26 year old son, Travis Wayne Koehler, to a workplace accident that should never have happened. It was completely preventable.

He worked for a very large hotel casino. He was an engineer. He did not have training for confined spaces, yet he died in one. His supervisor sent in another untrained person to do a job that normally was given to a contracted company, and when that person fell into unconsciousness, they told my son to go in and rescue him. They also sent a third person in, luckily he survived.

My point is, on these regulations is, that, while there were clear and concise regulations for confined spaces, such as having spotters, notifying heavy rescue, all kinds of different things that should have been in place, were completely and totally ignored. As long as the regulations are there, they should be followed. I would hate to see any regulations rolled back, that would scare me to death because somebody else, people die all the time.

My son was like my best friend, he was the middle boy of an older brother and a younger brother, he barely met one of his nephews when he was 8 months old and he now has 4 nephews that he will never get to know. My son had just become engaged 2 weeks before this happened, and his fiancée Crystal was devastated. Her whole life has been turned upside-down - nothing is the way it should be.

We’ve lost a huge person in our family – he was kind of like the glue that held everything together, although, his death has brought everyone in the family to a very close place, because we value each other very much.

For me personally, I don’t go to bed at night; I don’t wake up in the morning; I don’t have lunch; I don’t do anything – without Travis coming across my mind. I am devastated without him, I love him, and I wish he was back in my life to just hug me like he used to do and just say “mamma, it’s gonna be okay.”

But it’s not going to be okay now.

You know, regulations are not in place for the good companies, they’re in place for the bad companies – they’re in place for the ones who just want to cut corners, who want to do things the easy way and they don’t care about the employee. And that’s what I want to express.

Please don’t strip the regulations that save people’s lives. Please.

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Thanks to United Support & Memorial for Workplace Fatalities for connecting us with Debi.