Safety Thought of the Week

“The situation that the worker has to manage is always unique. Even if the prescribed operation is habitual, certain factors are specific to this particular time: the weather conditions, the time and the day of the week, the state of the upstream or downstream facilities, the equipment to be used, a maintenance technician nearby, the…...

“This view of accident causation suggests that unsafe acts are best reduced by eliminating their psychological precursors rather than the acts themselves. However, it must be accepted that whatever measures are taken, some unsafe acts will still occur. It is therefore necessary to provide a variety of defenses to intervene between the act and its…...

“Very few unsafe acts will result in damage or injury. In a highly protected system, the probability that the consequences of an isolated action will penetrate the various layers of defense is vanishingly small. Several causal factors are required to create a ‘trajectory of opportunity’ through these multiple defenses. Many of the causal contributions will…...

“Several recent accidents in complex, high-risk technologies had their primary origins in a variety of delayed-action human failures committed long before an emergency state could be recognized. These disasters were due to the adverse conjunction of a large number of causal factors, each one necessary but singly insufficient to achieve the catastrophic outcome. Although the…...

When reading this, think about the “Swiss cheese model” from Reason and the “domino model” from Heinrich. “Disasters are essentially organized events. To occur, they typically require the systemic and prolonged neglect of varying signs and signals of danger, creating deep pockets of organizational ignorance, organizational silence, and organizational blindness. When signals of risk are…...

This is a great synopsis of how serious accidents build within an organization over time because of the lack of a functioning SMS. When reading this, think “swiss cheese model” from Reason and the “domino model” from Heinrich. Disasters are essentially organized events. To occur, they typically require the systemic and prolonged neglect of varying…...

This is a great synopsis of how serious accidents build within an organization over time because of the lack of a functioning SMS. When reading this, think “swiss cheese model” from Reason and the “domino model” from Heinrich. Disasters are essentially organized events. To occur, they typically require the systemic and prolonged neglect of varying…...

Safety is not the absence of Accidents. Safety is the presence of Defenses and Capacity.   Dr. Todd Conklin… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member? Log in here...

Leadership and culture are two sides of the same coin; neither can be realized without the other. Leaders create and manage the safety culture in their organizations by maintaining safety as a priority, communicating their safety expectations to the workers, setting the standard for safety, and through actions not talk (walk the talk), leading needed…...

Since this week is OSHA log posting week, I thought it was fitting to remind everyone…   When safety is measured solely by lagging indicators, we put good men and women in situations where they are faced with making bad decisions.    Setting a numerical end goal without providing a playbook, skills, resources, and tools…...

If you have communicated with me by email over the years, you probably recognized that all my emails have a safety message in their signature/footer.  This is one of my favorites, as it came from an ALJ in an OSHRC decision…   “It is not hard to find people who complain about government regulations, but…...

I have been driving for 46 years and I have never died in a car wreck – BUT I STILL WEAR MY SEATBELT! The mere fact there has not been a negative result from an act does NOT mean we can we should continue that act without some layers of protection! So when someone claims…...