Help Cecil, HELP!

Emergency. The word even sounds urgent. It causes police to turn on their sirens, firemen to leap from a sound sleep and slide down a brass pole and the average person to go into panic mode. But what IS an emergency and who decides how big that emergency is. To an overprotective Mom it is a kid who is bleeding from a minor cut, to a cop it is a whacko walking around with a gun, to me it's running out of Propel.

The news is rife with stories of emergencies, some very real and others a matter of opinion. Katrina's aftermath was an emergency, 9/11 was too, Brad and Jenn's breakup was not. It seems that someone is always in the middle of, or facing, an emergency of some sort. People go to the emergency room with a cold or the flu, neither of which are emergencies. I have been to the emergency room a few times with what I deemed to be emergencies, but the only time the hospital agreed with with me was when I had a broken femur. The other emergencies, such as a kidney stone(I didn't know that was the problem at the time)or my child's injured shoulder were only emergencies to me, not to the hospital. They couldn't have been as we were left smarting in the waiting room for hours, the kidney stone leaving me lying in the floor in a fetal ball yelping like an injured puppy. Nobody died, so I guess their lack of urgency was justified.

I work for the Railroad, which falls under the boot of the Federal Railroad Administration(contrary to popular belief we are NOT federally regulated). We in the signal department are covered by the "Hours of Service Act", which states that we may not work over twelve hours in any twenty-four hour period without eight hours of rest for broken service and ten hours of rest for continious service, except in the event of an emergency, at which time we may work up to sixteen hours. Emergency. There it is again. The definition of that word varies wildy in this business. From boss to boss and problem to problem, but most agree that an emergency is anytime trains have to slow down(the system tries to maintian an average speed of 17.5 mph) or stop for a problem such as an unusual signal occurrence, a signal red for no apparent reason or a problem with a crossing. The FRA, however, takes the term more literally. It is only an emergency if public safety is involved, such as in the event of a crossing problem, or possibly, a derailment. Willful violation of the "HOS" can result in fines to the employee of up to $2,500 and dismissal and up to $10,000 to the company per infraction.

Another word that causes us, as workers, to interpret emergencies differently is "Greed". We make good money to start with and a check stuffed with OT(I have had as much as 100 hrs of OT in two weeks)looks really good on payday. What constitutes an emergency at work may vary for me personally depending on my plans. A month with no plans will cause a finer definition of the word than say, a month with a trip to Vegas in it. A family vacation will certainly relax the meaning of an emergency as will needing some new chrome for the Harley.

I guess I am as guilty as the newsies who decide what is and isn't an emergency and expect us, the public, to take tham all at face value. I always try and read between the lines in "emergency" stories(except obvious ones). Many "human interest" stories of families in crisis(another word for emergency)are poorly, if at all, researched and many turn out to be hoaxes and scams. I am not saying I don't hear the emergencies, I just make sure I LISTEN to them because I know how sloppy that term can be in my own life. How about you? I san emergency as widely interpreted to you as it is to me and the railroad?