Parking Lot Safety

You've gotta love this. I work at an Engineering / Design division of a large company. Most of our four-story building consists of these people, but the fourth floor and parts of the others are occupied by business people. There are two types of cars there in the parking lot. In the front, starting at 6 a.m., are the engineers' / designers' vehicles. Many of these are F-250 cattle-hauling monster dualies with mudflaps and things hanging out of them. It's not uncommon on a Friday, especially before a long or holiday weekend, to see a couple of these trucks hauling a boat for immediate departure to the lake as soon as work lets out. As the business people don't usually arrive until 8:30 or 9, they must park their BMWs and Mercedes in the back of the lot, forcing them to walk through the pickup truck landmine to get in to work. Keep in mind that I work in the Houston city limits, the fourth largest city in the United States - not in the middle of Kansas somewhere. These trucks are driven, by and large, by Suburban Cowboys from the city's surrounding suburban sprawl.

Our safety department (which is really just one very busy safety guy) sent out a building-wide broadcast email, as he is wont to do from time to time, with safety bulletins. The theme for this one was parking lot safety. The last one caught my attention:

Trucks and receiver hitches.
These hitches pose a tripping hazard for pedestrians. When not towing it's best to remove the hitch from the receiver. Exercise caution when parking such vehicles, particularly along the main walkway in the East Parking lot. When backing in, the hitch often times protrudes into the walkway. Busting you shins on one of these hitches hurts and could cause injury! When you park ensure your hitch and any materials in the bed of your truck do not pose a hazard for pedestrians and other vehicles.

I wonder if one of the Beamer drivers ripped his Armani slacks on the trailer hitch of an unsuspecting truck driver.