It sounds simple, but don't learn to be safe by having an accident yourself, getting injured or scared by a significnat near miss.  If thre is one thing that we all can learn and should learn is that we do not need to expereince everything ourselves to learn the safety lesson.  Instead, it is better to use our ability to think logically and to empathize with the pain of others (both emotionally and physcially) to learn the safety lessons.

It has been said that, for the most part, we have stopped inventing new ways to hurt people at work a long time ago.  While this may not be entirely true, it is likely 99.9% true.  Thus, we can learn the lessons of the past to prevent incidents from occuring in the present.  We just need to be open to learning those lessons and put our egos in check that often prevent us from fully incorporating those experiences.  Instead, study accidents of the past, think logically about the procedures and the tasks about to be undertaken and imagine what could go wrong in the work execution.  Try to mitigate those risks and take action to prevent an incident from happening long before the situation arises that could cause someone (or yoruself) to get hurt.  Don’t be one of those people who are often heard to say after an accident, “Everything was gong along just fine until…” or “I just didn’t expect…” or “I had no idea…"

Don't develop your safety knowledge through the scars on your body, missing appendages or limbs, or the emotional pain you carry.  Instead, learn safety through studying the past, and focusing on the present to imagine what could go wrong and then taking action to prevent bad things from happening.