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The mark Derek's head left on the ceiling.

If you didn't read about it yesterday, Derek had an incident with the low ceiling an a stairway here in our building. Lesson learned? If you're tall enough to almost touch the ceiling with your head, bounding down the stairs is a bad idea.

In order to keep my fellow co-worker safe I decided to take it upon myself to create a safe work environment for Derek and fashioned him a stylish helmet to make sure he avoids any future concussions going down the stairs.

Read more to take a look at my handiwork and see what happens when I present it to him.

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Derek and his bloody mess at the bottom of the stairs.

Suffice it to say, Derek was the butt of (or the head of) a lot of jokes yesterday. But to clear his good name, I did a little investigating.

I think Derek stands about 5' 10"  (that's 70 inches). I measured the stairs below up to the spot where Derek left his mark on the ceiling and that measured 77 inches.

My first thought was, "Wow, he must have really been getting some air on his way down." But then I checked the  measurement from the previous step to the ceiling. That one came in at 66 inches, well below the altitude threshold of his noggin.

With these scientific facts I concluded that anyone over 5' 6" could feasibly hit their head on the ceiling above the stairs if they had enough forward lean going into their final decent.

Conclusion: It wasn't a 'stupid' mistake, just a careless one.  And Derek is certainly not the first person to bash his skull on the ceiling here.

Todd Harding from our sister station K99 is just down the hall from us and he's had some issue with the stairs too.

I remember the 1st time I hit my head going down the stairs, it knocked me out cold.  I was happily bouncing down the stairs and next thing you know I was fading to black.  Ever since then I have tipped my head to the side when I go downstairs.

-Todd Harding, K99

And he's tall, he must have smacked it pretty good!

Let's hope my safety gadget can keep Derek safe. It's labeled with his name and place of employment should he become disoriented or lost, and has built in headphones so he can use it freely while on the air.

Enjoy your new helmet Derek, may it protect your skull and the gooey brain matter underneath.

Keep holding your head high, just not when you're headed downstairs.

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