Chris,
I had a this foreman who was a friend and golf partner outside of work, and in 1996, we would work our asses off all day, get off and head for Long Beach Big Rec or Little Rec Park for a quick round or as many holes as we could get in before sunset.
This was a heavy duty job in for the Port of Los Angeles on Terminal Island. He always had to tell us to make sure we we're wearing out orange vests out there, given all of the heavy duty earth-moving equipment that was on the job.
Well, after that job, he took a position with another contractor during the building of Disneyland's California Adventure. They didn't have orange vests for that job, and one day when working with some duct bank around a 6 foot deep trench, he had a back hoe literally swing his bucket and hit him in the side of the head.
He has never been the same since. His life more or less ended that day, and the last time I saw him at our Union Hall, he was literally reduced to being a person who nothing more then observer in life. He lost everything--including his wife and kids, while becoming destitute. The Union has always tried to keep an eye on him because it was a tragic accident--but he only becomes aggitated. I heard he was last seen living in a refridgerator box somewhere in Chino.
When Cal-OSHA investigated, the cause was determined to be that the back hoe operator never saw him because he wasn't wearing a bright orange safety vest.
Frankly speaking, I have always found in my business that the person who makes fun of safety or being safe--usually ends up being a victim. I pray that doesn't happen to you.
Go look at one of the many websites concerning on the job accidents and tell me that Orange Vests aren't a good thing. But you can also look at it this way. The same job in the Harbor, the first week I was out there in 1996, a Mantowoc crane had its main 2" cable break and had its 75' boom come crashing down from its elevated position. Beneath it was a guy who I had coffee with 2 hours before. The paramedics called to the scene utilized his orange vest to pull his body out from underneth it, because his body was reduced to a bag of bones. Most hopefully, he didn't see or feel a thing.