Real Life Safety Heroes: Candace Carnahan, Prophetess of Safety

Working at a paper mill for the summer is dangerous work, especially for a 21-year-old. Still, Candace Carnahan was unusually attentive to her personal safety.  

But on August 11, 1999, she let her guard down. Her mind focusing on weekend plans, Candace took a shortcut. Instead of walking around the conveyor belt system, she walked across it. Her left foot got snagged in the belt which kept right on moving. Finally, somebody heard her screams and stopped the machine. 

It took the paramedics 45 minutes to dislodge her leg. The pain was excruciating. Sadly, Candace’s lower left leg had to be amputated. “All I could think about were my ballet classes and cheerleader training,” she’d later recount.  

However, Candace’s injury is the beginning – not the end – of her story. While others would mope, Candace went from the recovery room to Europe where she spent a month backpacking across the continent. And thinking.  

Upon returning to her native New Brunswick, Candace dedicated herself to workplace safety and resolved to use the power of her own experience to prevent what she suffered from happening to others, first as a spokesperson for the WHSCC, as the New Brunswick workers’ comp agency was known at the time, and then as one of Canada’s most motivational of motivational speakers.  

Today, Candace runs her own company called Candace Carnahan Motivational Speaking Inc., and travels the country preaching the word: Nobody is invincible and injuries really do happen. “The first step in not getting hurt is simply knowing that you can be,” Candace says. 

It’s an awesome message and one that nobody in the world is better qualified to preach than Candace Carnahan.