Idiots and work

Last night was one of "those" kind of nights. It went relatively fast once you got past the idiot. Supervisor #2 hires some real winners. I think he chooses the worst of the worst, and says "congrats" you're hired! Case in point...

A worker came up to me last night and said he needed to fill out a "near miss" form. I asked him why. He said he almost got his fingers cut. The conversation goes something like this:

Idiot: I need to fill out a near miss form
Me: Ok can you tell me why?
Idiot: I almost cut my fingers
Me: And how did that happen?
Idiot: The hopper was clogged, and none of the regular fixes worked. So I took the air pipe off the bottom of the hopper, and grabbed the clog with my fingers.
Me: Ok, so how did you almost cut your fingers?
Idiot: Well there were these little blades on the inside half of the hopper, and they were spinning.
Me: Did you remember to LOTO (lock out tag out) the machine first?
Idiot: No. No one told me I had to do that. Maintenance said only if I am reaching inside the hopper. So I need to write up a near miss report, and tell them they should have a warning that there are moving parts inside there. So no one gets hurt.
Me: You do realize as soon as you remove the air pipe, you are considered to be reaching inside the hopper, correct? And as such you could be cited for a safety violation, since you neglected to LOTO the machine first.
Idiot: (extremely indignant) No one told me I had to LOTO the machine when I do this, I can't be written up for something no one told me.
Me: Actually you can. We do not follow after each and every employee to make sure you don't do something stupid. And we can only engineer out so many hazards. Common sense must come into play on occasion.
Idiot: Well that's not right. No one told me.
Me: Here is an example. Day shift Idiot takes space heater out of bathroom, and places it next to a bale of drc (paper), while she is working. Anyone above the age of 7 should realize you don't place a heat source near paper. We should not have to explain that to an adult.
Idiot: Well if no one told her, then she can't be blamed for doing it.
Me: Like I said before, we can only engineer out so much stupid.

I had to walk away after that. He was adamant that if someone isn't specifically told something is hazardous, that absolves them of any wrong doing. I wonder if he ever thought of bungee jumping off a very tall building, without a cord....