After Hours

DANGEROUSLY OPTIMISTIC

In what can often be a dangerous line of work, Casey Johansen uses optimism and innovation to improve safety, efficiency and inspire others

By ERIN THORBURN

One thing becomes quite clear within mere minutes of meeting Casey Johansen, project manager for BCS Enterprises: he is an optimist. In fact, according to Johansen, his wife describes him as “dangerously optimistic.”

“What I’ve found,” Johansen says, “is I’m able to take the cards that I have been dealt and make them work for me.”

As far as cards are concerned, Johansen was dealt a particularly bad hand in 2006. After being trapped beneath 400,000 pounds of debris from the Phoenix Convention Center’s collapsed roof, Johansen endured a three-week coma, multiple surgeries and the loss of his legs.

Despite — and in response to — his personal experience, Johansen discovered exactly how his optimism could help counteract the more dangerous aspects of his career in demolition. And optimism combined with innovation hasn’t only paid off for Johansen, it has paid dividends for others within and outside of his industry.

“I was in a demolition accident, but I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Johansen explains, “but had I had some different machinery that was larger, could reach farther, could do more, I wouldn’t have been in harm’s way. What we’ve strived to do [as a company] since that point is make tools and equipment that remove the human element, and places them further away from danger.”

As a fourth-generation demolition contractor, his career in demolition

and familiarity with machinery has no doubt contributed to Johansen’s innovations. “I’ve always been attracted to large machinery and it just fascinates me,” he says. “It fit right along with what I wanted to do.”

Many of Johansen’s inventions focus on increasing efficiency and safety within his occupation. “A lot of the specialty tools that we use are designed by us right here in-house,” he says. “We have giant misting fans that keep the dust controlled. We have different machine attachments; different boom extensions to reach higher and further. We design all that here at BCS to make the job better. A lot of that was developed after my accident.”

In addition to creating tools and devices to improve BCS workplace safety and operations, Johansen’s inventive predilections have surfaced in other areas of his life. One such invention — an adapted Segway — Johansen initially designed to help improve his mobility after his accident. Now, it has helped multiple reintegrating wounded veterans. In fact, Johansen passed his adapted device on to Segs4Vets, which helps provide “independence to people with disabilities, specifically severely-disabled men and women veterans returning from service” from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“[Segs4Vets] said, ‘Hey, let us buy you out of all your tooling and equipment, and the money that you invested in it,’” Johansen recalls. “‘You give us all the designs and we’ll run with it from there.’ That’s what I did, and they’ve been running with it ever since.”

At the end of the day, Johansen appreciates the ability to creatively problem-solve wherever the need may arise — professionally, personally or otherwise. “Nobody’s exactly the same,” he says, “but in situations similar to my own, I try to help people see that it’s going to be okay. And that there is a way to get things done and a way to do anything and everything that they want. My perspective on life has opened a little bit on overcoming challenges. That’s probably what I like most about my job and my industry is there are never two situations that are the same. There’s always some challenge that needs to be overcome.”

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES: After being trapped beneath 400,000 pounds of debris from the Phoenix Convention Center’s collapsed roof, Casey Johansen endured a three-week coma, multiple surgeries and the

loss of his legs. (Photo by Mike Mertes, AZ Big Media)