This training film, narrated by Hollywood actor Claude Akins, highlights the importance of reasonable driving speeds when operating Dow Chemical trucks. Featuring internationally famous animal trainer Boone Narr, the film uses animal training as a metaphor for job safety as it applies to safe truck driving. The film emphasizes the importance of safe driving speeds and employs the “egg test” to demonstrate truck stopping distance at high and low speeds.
Dow Chemical, headquartered in Midland, Michigan, is one of the world’s largest chemical companies with numerous plants and facilities all over the world. Dow Chemical’s involvement in Texas began in 1940 with the construction of the Freeport Plant in Freeport, Texas. This plant was primarily tasked with extracting magnesium from sea water, a much needed resource America's military effort in World War II. The development of the city of Lake Jackson, which served as a home for Dow employees, coincided with the construction of the Freeport Plant and as such share a mutual history. Dow Chemical in Freeport became part of a larger transformation of the Texas Coast into a major center of the oil and chemical industry.