Scenario: In your letter, you state that your client’s driver was driving a company vehicle, on the clock, and traveling on a public roadway. The driver was traveling between service calls near an intersection when a four-car collision occurred as the result of another car coming from the wrong direction in the same lane. After…...
This safety and cultural assessment report documents FRA’s findings, recommendations, and methodologies resulting from the 60-Day Supplemental Safety & Cultural Assessment of Norfolk Southern Railway (NS). The Department of Transportation announced its intent to perform this assessment on March 7, 2023, in response to NS’s safety performance and the East Palestine, Ohio derailment which occurred…...
Admiral Rickover is the Father of Nuclear Safety in the U.S. Navy. He holds the Navy’s record for years of service, having served 60 years (1922 – 1982). He passed away 4 years later at the age of 86. Admiral Rickover coveted the following “7 Rules” in developing, implementing, and managing his nuclear safety program…...
In the world of Human Factors, we have a saying, “failing safely,” which translates into… all humans make mistakes – it’s our job to identify those error/mistake traps and design work to lessen those error opportunities. In Process Safety we used to use the phrase “cascading failures”, which is the opposite of “failing safely.” In…...
Earlier this year, a member of the SAFTENG FaceBook group posted a question about this type of system being used in a warehouse within the USA. Many of us were caught off guard as it seemed very risky to drop the Oxygen level to 13% in an occupied space, even with all the alarms and…...
This is an excellent presentation by John S. Carroll, MIT Sloan School of Management at the NTSB Public Forum on Transportation Safety: Enhancing Safety Culture. His presentation does an excellent job of explaining where the term “safety culture” originated and how organizations shape their culture of safety. CLICK HERE for the presentation… Membership Required You...
PLEASE READ NOW AND TAKE ACTION Dear MSA Customer, MSA is issuing this User Safety Notice to inform you of a PROCEDURAL UPDATE regarding usage of the Altair 5X PID gas detector. MSA has determined that PID sensors manufactured from March 2020 to and including June 2023 may not respond to gas after being turned…...
We don’t see this often, but the number of facilities that do not know of this fundamental OSHA/IFC/NFPA requirement for their fixed LPG storage tank(s) is sad. How one defines “high water table or flood conditions” is open for discussion as no one has reallty DEFINED or QUANTIFIED the phrase as of yet. The video…...
I keep using this tragedy as a teaching/learning tool. This officer was convicted and sentenced to 4-years in prison for aiding and abetting manslaughter for holding back the crowd during George Floyd’s murder. TAKE THE POLITICS OUT OF IT and ask…. Why didn’t he step in and do something? This is the difference between “latent…...
When an organization has identified hazards and established the risks those hazards pose, it must have a process(es) in place to ELIMINATE hazards, or where this is not possible, to reduce the risks associated with the identified hazard(s), using the hierarchy of controls. At the top of the hierarchy of controls is ELIMINATION. This is…...
Earlier this year, I wrote about using the old ANSI/ASSE Z590.2-2003 (R2012) Criteria for Establishing the Scope and Functions of the Professional Safety Position standard when establishing the scope, function, role(s), and responsibilities of the organization’s safety professionals. This older standard does an excellent job of keeping things simple and provides a nice framework from…...
“It is important to establish the difference between leadership, which is acquired, and authority, which is assigned. An optimal situation exists when the two are combined. Leadership involves teamwork, and the quality of a leader depends on the success of the leader’s relationship with the team. Leadership skills should be developed for all through proper…...
