Fools, idiots and risk embracer's

I was camping near the Gold Coast a few months back and while sitting there writing a topic on safety, I noticed some hire bikes lapping around the car park area with fools of the male type on board.

They were doing all manner of stupid things. So I grabbed the camera to capture some images to remind me how we humans seem to have the need to do things we know we should not be doing...for fun. 

The sequence shots here show the '10 seconds of fame syndrome'...

"Watch me do a burn out and video record it...ahh hah...crash (laughing)...show me, show me....quick, put it on youtube and facebook for the world to see me acting stupid.."

Rio Tinto fined $70,000 over worker death - NOT MUCH OF A FINE for allowing untrained workers to work!

A RIO Tinto subsidiary has been fined $70,000 after a 27-year-old fitter died while working in 2011 at the Brockman 2 iron ore mine in Western Australia's Pilbara region. 

A killed worker and two other workers were conducting maintenance on a front end loader in the mine's workshop when a 1400kg tilt cylinder that was suspended from a crane slipped, falling and fatally striking the worker. 

The Department of Mines and Petroleum found that none of the workers held the appropriate rigging qualifications or were properly certified for high risk work. 

Pilbara Iron Company on Thursday pleaded guilty in the Perth Magistrates Court to failing to provide a safe working environment.

Here is their  safety attitude; http://www.riotinto.com/ourcommitment/safety-and-health-4792.aspx

Note this phase from site...in particular the last sentence!

Building a culture of safety

At Rio Tinto, safety is part of our DNA. 

Our safety culture is strong throughout our organisation. This means all employees and all contractors being dedicated to helping us achieve zero harm, and taking responsibility for working safely. Everyone knowing that they make a difference. And everyone having the knowledge, competence and desire to work safely

NOW...what happened to those who allowed untrained workers to work??????

OVER REACTION ....MAYBE

 

Story HERE

 

PANSW vice president Pat Gooley said, "We are working with government to secure urgently needed additional funding – it's time to protect those that protect the community." He said; "It is going to be an expensive process and that money has to come from somewhere,"

All this talk and reaction reminds me so much of workplace safety (more, more, more), although when a worker gets killed, they get no where near the publicity like those in the services who are in a high risk job. We see no state funerals or awards given to their services to society. As I have said before, workers just seem to be ignored as just workers!!!

 

In response to the reaction to add 'more' police/protection, I would have to ask, then who is going to protect those, who protect the police, who protect the community?

 

While I think the extra safety controls being discussed have some merit (as safety is paramount), are we really going to far trying to protect police. The worker killed was not a uniformed officer, so while police are now using this act to get extra funding to increase protection (a long running battle for those in uniform), are we going to have to pay for personal police escorts for all those (behind the scenes) who work for police while they travel to and from work or leave to go on lunch etc? 

 

Then we have a story like this link below and it really gets me thinking...who protects the public against police?

 

Police officers must personally pay for bashing and humiliating man

Coles, pushing truck drivers to work like slaves

I do not like graffiti...but I thought why not....break the law for awareness I say!!!  - I sprayed it on while hanging out the window doing 120kph!!!!...

Every day, Coles, gets away with pushing truck drivers to work for rock bottom rates while the drivers are forced to drive longer hours, faster and skip breaks...so much for the chain of responsibility Laws!!!

Check out their safety page HERE (At Coles, we’re committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for our team, customers, suppliers, contractors and visitors. To support our safety policy, we have a comprehensive safety management system called ‘SafetyCARE’.)

Is COLES any worse than this HERE (Trucking boss Peter Colbert jailed for more than 12 years over driver Robert Brimson's death)

WHAT IS GOING ON? we know about it and has been occurring for years, its a 'simple increase in products cost fix"! (so Coles won't loose their profit) Opps... I keep forgetting...we consumers don't want to pay for safety...imagine having to pay an extra 20% on all products to make our roads safer...that ludicrous!!! Bring on the safety Tax!!!

Report from ABC HERE

Open up full blog HERE

Company fined $90,000 after worker injury

A company has been fined $90,000 in a West Australian court after a worker was injured three years ago while unloading pipes from a truck.

In October 2012, Process Minerals International employee Meliton Garcia and another worker were rigging 20-metre polyethylene pipes to a crane before they were unloaded from the truck, when Mr Garcia was struck by a one-tonne pipe and fell four metres.

Process Minerals, which operates the Woodie Woodie fines treatment plant, pleaded guilty to two charges of failing to provide a safe working environment and was fined in Port Hedland Magistrates Court.

Department of Mines and Petroleum director of mines safety Andrew Chaplyn said on Monday that falls from heights were a major cause of death on mine sites despite being easily preventable.

"There was a genuine risk that workers could have been killed and it was only luck that the consequences were not much worse," he said. (note from me - there is that word 'luck' again...it was not luck but fate, as by this topic FATE)

"The workers were not provided with a safe system of work and were unnecessarily exposed to a serious hazard."

Mr Chaplyn said the decision sent an important message about ensuring safety on WA mine sites. 

The charges resulted after Process Minerals was found to have failed to provide a procedure for workers to safely unload the pipes.

Trucking boss Peter Colbert jailed for more than 12 years over driver Robert Brimson's death

Trucking boss Peter Colbert jailed for more than 12 years over driver Robert Brimson's death

The Supreme Court heard Colbert was repeatedly warned about the truck's faulty brakes. 

Justice David Peek said Colbert was a risk-taker on the road who thought he would have survived such a brake failure. 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-21/trucking-boss-peter-colbert-jailed-for-drivers-death/6714506

Many Still Think That Risk Homeostasis Is A Fallacy

I replied on LinkedIn (the post was taken off by the author as my view must to be true as why would you take it off...to stop people thinking! these people protect their views like a religious zealot)to this post HERE as it just shows again how people are trying to justify how a name in vented in hindsight and used in hindsight makes sense...I am saying so what!....what can you do to prevent it occurring...safety is about prevention

All I get from this post is a hindsighted (told you so) view to prove a term that can only be given in hindsight. Oh you say...this proves RHT exists...well not sure anyone is proving it does not exist, the issue is how could we know for sure that the lines did not do what they were hoped to do...that being to provide some sort of shared space on the road for cyclists.

So what you are saying is to not do anything or to try and improve safety as like you always say, there is always a trade off of an equal or worse risk (I think I have disproved this notion with the WAH harness argument you could not argue against). The article is about cycle lanes and that because drivers cross over onto white lines and that riders may take more risk, this proves we might as well do nothing...why am I stating this; you seem to jump up and act as (in your own words) "some sort safety person who relishes incidents (in his case a theory) so they (you) can step in and do their thing or spruik "I told you so"?" ...well this is what you have just done yourself.

You have also just used a safety initiative in a negative way...well done!...why cannot safety be a positive thing you ask?

So, can the author explain how we can control/mitigate RHT in a foresighted manner so we cannot make these "told you so" actions? I mean really, if we cannot know of a trade off result (and maybe the lines may have improved safety) until after the event/study/trial/ implementation what benefit can be gain learning about how we can tell everyone after the fact what they just did or implemented.

Maybe the fallacy is the thinking we can see into the future to predict the outcome of the thing we are putting in place to hopefully improve something...

And maybe can the author give his advice on how he would have made a space for cyclists on a road? what just had nothing....i wonder how many heavy vehicles would cross over a invisible line...I also wonder if a study will show how many vehicles enter into the 1.5 m gap....and i wonder if this also is a stupid "i told you so" rule? How about we rid all rules and be loose and let everyone manage their own risk as this is what the author supports...This thinking denies what is need to be a functioning society!

Once one commits to the illogical binary oppositional mindset, it all goes downhill from there and, there can certainly be no balance once one accepts an extremist absolute semiotic. This never shifts to one's private life of course, it is only applied to safety. It is also something one applies to other people, this absolutism and extremist sense of rule and power is never intended to be applied to self, its is something that is always good for 'other people'. Then when something doesn't suit the logic people resort to insult, abuse or personal attack and then complain of censorship, the same censorship they want applied to you. The logic is of course that their power is more important than your power and that dissent should be tolerated only when it suits them. Hence more binary polarization in the name of good. RL

Look at some of the bias replies

Rob Sams 

When all you have is process and engineering controls, well all you have is process and engineering controls....... Sad that our industry is so fixated on control, fear and 'fixing', seems not at all interested in 'living' and understanding. When your approach has this at it's basis every problem must be fixed. The trajectory is..... ? Certainly not being human or fallible
My comment; Psychology is a process. All studies follow what?  

Mark M. 

What I think is most important is that when looking at an accident and trying to put all of the pieces together, we should look at the individuals level of acceptable risk and not our own acceptable levels. They may have accepted an act because the amount of risk was comfortable to them and to attempt to change that level of comfort is about as easy as making the sun rise in the west.

What a stupid comment - its sying let workers choose what risk they want to take...I know, lets rid speed zones!!!! how bloody pathetic...

Rob Long 

The delusion is that engineering solutions and thinking 'control'.
A typical absolute reply from one who dislikes people talking in blank and white...There is no delusion that engineering controls people... 

Pressure to Produce strikes again

Rushing Brisbane Lady Cilento Children's Hospital opening put patient safety at risk, report finds.

Again showing how pressures such as reputation and money cause much negative effects.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-13/lady-cilento-report-finds-rushed-opening-put-safety-at-risk/6693516

Holiday Death Tolls

The holiday period road toll for the past 12 years shows (as it does in my point about safety) that the mean level rate is relatively constant over a period. As with safety, there will be accidents and incidents and in some cases Pressure Induced Inconvenient Events (PIIE) as people are in hurry to get to their location or home.

What we see is a count that goes up and down with no key reason behind the points (maybe fuel, weather, economy all playing a part). Just like the workplace deaths each year ,the rates vary slightly, but over time show that regardless of any advertising campaign or incentives, events still occur. So I wonder if we saved all that money the government spends of safe driving campaigns and put this money into better roads (engineering) we would see an improvement? Maybe speeding might go up as result of better road, but that's why speed laws are in place...aren't they?

As likened with work, people don't drive to kill themselves; so why do we keep assuming that we can change people using any form of manipulation.

So the mean level I have worked out for these two 12 year periods are;

Christmas 58.6

Easter 26.3

So if we have a count lower than this score then we can say we had a good year (still means nothing). If higher we can say we had a tragic year (still means nothing). As with the road toll, workplace safety is at a level also at around 170 per year. Just like the road toll, the workplace will fluctuate also and as I keep saying; there is nothing we can do to change this, just like people who hit their finger banging in a nail.

So what we can now say is that this year 2015, I think we have had more deaths as the Easter count is going to be higher (probably a factor of wet whether and cheaper fuel) so shame on us, as we have most likely gone above the mean level of accidents.

Warning, there is a speeding camera ahead

I assume most of us have been given a flash of lights to warn us about a speeding camera ahead. I think its aiding and abetting a criminal act.

 

Why do we warn people who are disobeying rules designed to keep us safe?

 

Assume for a moment that you have been effected by a speeding driver, say a loved one has been killed by a speeding driver, would you flash and warn people to slow down when the these people should be fined. Would you warn a criminal who is about to bash a victim in a park  that police is coming? Did my point send a clear message and hit home that speeding kills people. Speed cameras are not revenue makers, they are there to try and keep the rules we set being followed, if there were no speed cameras there would be little care of the speed we travel and many would travel faster than what they can handle on our crappy roads. If everyone did the speed then like all rules we would have no need for enforcement!

Take away business employed safety people

The Safety Collective Group - We all make up safety

 

If we as a society really wanted to ensure safety is being done within organisations with all practicality and due diligence, we would have a separate safety sector (not government) managing workplace safety...the Collective Safety Group.

This sector would visit workplaces and assist with safety (like some Gov departments are supposed to do but don't). These safety representatives with varied expertise (engineering, environment, oligies etc) would not belong to any organisation and they would rotate between all businesses so no bias constraints can be developed. This way there could be no hiding the facts of real issues that need resolve, no under reporting, no fear of reprisal and an outcome that is the best interest of the people and organization.

Issues would have to be solved and people would have to start 'doing'. Risk and corrective actions would not just sit in a register for a short time and then be deleted and forgotten about. Incident investigations and audits would be conducted by this group with no connection to the organization. They would have no biases and no bosses telling them how the incident report 'should be shaped' or what 'should not be addressed' in an audit. Audits and investigations would be done and non conformances issued that would need to be rectified.

These are things we are supposed to be doing now, but is not working because as a 'safety person' (so called owner of safety) you cannot bite the hand that feeds you. There is to much fear and control over safety and safety practices for any real benefit to occur.

Maybe we could co as far as saying that we could introduce a collective "Safety Fee/Tax" of 2% of company turnover. This low fee would cover this safety group (and in many cases be cheaper than having an internal safety person or a safety department). This way all businesses no matter how big or small would have access to the same safety. This would also allow the many different expertise's that make up safety to work in synergy with each other. If the safety issue is a environment one, then an environmental expert would visit. If the safety issue was a engineering one then a engineering safety specialist would visit. If an investigation was needed, then an investigator would visit and they would seek other expertise advice, If an audit needs doing then an auditor would visit etc etc.

These sectors would then enter their findings and data into a central hub where the safety issue would be managed collectively. Organizations would get a detailed report and corrective actions and have deadlines to close out actions. The safety collective would be there to assist the organization. If the organization is large enough, they may still need a person to collaborate with the safety collective and internal mangers.

What is safety HERE 
What is a safety Person HERE

Wicked Problem

If safety is a wicked problem, and we accept this, we do we spend so much time and effort trying to go below the mean level of incidents and unsafe acts. All these safety programs and new old solutions will not make a collective difference because we have allowed for safety to be a wicked problem by imposing many topics. There is always going to be mistakes, pressures, greed and stupidity. There is nothing that will change this, as this is us and our existence.

A "wicked problem" is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. This is a society, and history proves we don't solves issues.

 

Society itself is a collective wicked problem when we divide it with nonsense and individualism. War is a wicked problem when it divides humanity into sectors. Bullying is a wicked problem that causes much  negative costs. Schooling is a wicked problem when many children leave school with less than average education. Our drive to success and to be number one (winner) is a wicked problem when its told to us that we can be anything we want to be as children. Greed is a wicked problem when it alters a persons life in a negative way. Government is a wicked problem when they lie and steal and cannot manage money. Control is a wicked problem when its used to manipulate people into doing topics for the gain of another. Failure to learn is a wicked problem when we see that the same occurrence of incidents occur often. Fear is a wicked problem when it's imposed onto moral dispositions.

I look at us, the human species as stupid, and you only have to watch the news and or TV shows about people whatching TV shows to prove this point. You might like my writing HERE maybe even this lecture HERE - I don't care either way

 

The list of wicked problems is long and growing, and it is us who have made them and built them, will it be us who fixes them...no, it will be a external motivator! 

 

Safety is a wicked problem, this is true. Maybe it's time to accept that like all things wicked, that these wickedness's are a collective wicked problem that cannot be solved or improved. It's a nice thought to have, a great dream, to fix a wicked problem, but foolish to assume that they are in fact curable with such collective stupidity. 

 

Maybe its time to move on from the incurable.

 

Not complete

51% behavioral choices

According to many safety stats 50% of workplace incidents are from worker complacency...Yes, many incidents are caused by complacency; lack of training, lack of good tools, lack of equipment maintenance, lack of officer commitment, lack of leadership, lack of communication, lack of job standards, lack of appropriate time given to do a task safely, lack of fair pay rates, etc etc...hang on... corporate complacency is a big cause of inconvenient events MD

 

I look at this and see it for what it is and showing...

 

Personal Behavioral Choices are a result of points 2 to 10...( so that's nearly 100% issues not directly related to the worker...

 

Well done PEER.

Masquerade

When are we going to really start talking about real issues instead of talking about topics that are not the leading issues in safety? Topics like safety managers and officers who are incompetent yet continue to get jobs as a leader (LinkedIn is full of lies and self promotion), yet these people have failed as a leader and have been a partial cause to workplace deaths and injuries. Topics like psychology, where there seems to be people who think this is the answer and will stop incidents occurring (keep in mind people don't go to work to hurt themselves), in my view this is just another expensive band aid, especially when the people promoting this stuff tell us to unlearn safety topics, to embrace risk, to not use hindsight as a way to learn, to be loose and ignore rules and not find blame.

In so many workplace safety events, there are key issues that cause incidents, but they mostly get lost within all sorts of trivial safety programs that come out by those looking to cash in and make a quick buck.

The simple fact is that organisations that are not making enough money cut corners, organisations that cause mental health issues and stress are pushing people to hard and asking them to do things outside best practice. Organisation that are not making money do not maintain equipment, or purchase better equipment, they also go lax on training workers. This (greed) is the key to most workplace tragedies, yet we continue to masquerade behind the false notion that it’s everything but these things.

As I have been saying for years, get rid of organisation paid safety people, introduce a safety TAX so that "all" organisations have access to non bias professionals/inspectors that make organisations more accountable for fixing non compliances. If safety is to become a priority, then this is the only way I see it working. There are to many organisation not doing real safety and things being ignored. It is only after event that we see what should have been done by those who knew what should have been done in the first place.

I would also like to see a day where workers have a day where they can have a minute silence for all those workers that have been killed. We need to start remembering that work kills many people, at in most case its corporate greed that does it.

Due Diligence of officers

In such tragic events such as the Beaconsfield mine incident, it was the officers and managers that failed to think critically about the expert advice being presented; it is the officers and managers who did not address critical safety concerns in relation to that industry, it was also the workers who did not think critically about known risk as they had families to feed and lives to live. Therefore it is not just the ‘safety people’ or safety department (silo) that needs to think critically, the whole organisation does and I am sure this is what they mean by Due Diligence of officers and mindfullness

Safety walk to look for high risk activities

A safety expert once said we should do a safety walk to look for high risk activities in the workplace. This sort of comment has not addressed that the high risk work should have been investigated proir to it being done in the first place, so much me expertise!!

 

So. 

 

High risk (in context of the work) should have been investigated in a safety assessment/study conducted prior to the organisation commencement of operation. A safety assessment is a comprehensive and systematic investigation and analysis of ‘all’ aspects of risks to health and safety associated with events that may potentially occur in the course of operation.

A safety walk should not have to look for high risk activities for 1) they should be addressed by the competent workers overseeing/doing the task if the risk presents itself outside of the known context 2) the organisation should have already addressed high risk prior to the inception (could be at the start or an introduction of a new topic into the company that should have gone through a risk assessment process) of any new risk. Who is best to understand their team, the team leader of the operation, not the safety person or for that matter the CEO.

Who gives stuff away (people who pursuade)

In all fairness to the cynics who question those who claim they give their safety systems and ideas away for free. I am not sure they give much away in their entirety, hey give out samplers. If you give out a picture-graph that has does not have an accompanying instructions, instructions that make sense of the picture-graph, then you have given ambiguity, for which one then needs to pursue (purchase) to get further clarity. First chapters of books, sample lollies, free gifts, first hour free consultations, I will give you my precious time free, give me your name and I will send you something etc, are all text book marketing strategies.

 

These tacts are all part of humble pursuation and reciprocity. It is so interesting to see these tricks promoted on some safety sites.

Failures and ignoring of information

You could easy reference many aspects of the Longford case to others of similar result. The more I read the Beaconsfield reports and relevant info, I am seeing failures and ignoring of information everywhere. This is why I constantly say safety is not going to be controlled by trivial safety programs or phycology. These big incidents (as with many small ones) are caused by corporate greed which forces workers to cut corners and under report real factors. 

 

I think the whole Longford (and A Hopkins book is quite good) incident was related to complacency bought on by the culture set by top levels and pressure/budget demands to not interrupt flow to customers (profit driven). Not doing a HAZOP is nothing short of OHS incompetence in an operation that should have had one, to ignoring alarms, makes way for my point relative to Isaac Newton comments below (which I cannot even get into as you will have a 30 page email).

 

While the Longford report does mention 2 main causes (but defining operator error is based on the fact operators were not trained properly, so I feel is not operator error), I can say there was a multitude of causalities that contributed (each leaning on each other). These including eleven breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act along with all the social influences that played a part in ignorance in light of these breaches.

 

As with most cases related to the proper function of proactive OHS, (that being it costs a lot of money to be proactively mindful) such OHS topics are not fully implemented due to this cost. I.e. training workers past what their obligated basic task is something many companies do not spend money on. You are shown what to do but not shown how things work to know why things may and can go wrong.

 

I.e. Training on such as what would happen if you pump hot liquid through really cold pipes, what does ice mean on pipes that are normally red hot etc (Longford accident). Just these two factors may have stopped the incident is people were trained better...what would this training cost have been compared to the final outcome? Training is key, funding training is key! What to military pilots do in-between wars...train, train some more training and train again...(but most business do not have a set budget like ADF)

 

Where the ball may fall for the next big one. (I have been working on a paper what I was calling Foreseeable Trajectories.

 

Isaac Newton explained that the future of any part of the universe can be predicted with complete certainty, if its state at any time was known in all facts. With enough information of the conditions of the objects and of the laws that govern their motion, all subsequent events can be foreseen. I don’t think we can be that accurate in safety but I think we can get pretty close.

 

Now if we look at this in an OHS context, you should be able to see the commonalty I am referencing. State being the organisation preoccupation with failure, objects being workers, parts being tasks, and laws being management systems etc..sorry for the deep thinking, but I do believe you can predict with a certain amount of accuracy the type of events that may occur in the future within an organisation using very stringent data collecting (as long as that data is correct and has full information) and known’s (what we not to be true for hindsight). Once you know what the certain risks could be, then you ensure these are mitigated.

 

Maybe if safety was done by external unbiased consultants and that all safety people were not owned by the organisation, things may improve as safety people would not have to lie to keep their jobs. I can tell you right know, safety records and training needs would not be given a quick glace over as the business would be greatly constrained to 'doing' what is required to be done to ensure OHS is best practice as said by these external safety people.

Consciousness Bombarded

Here is an interesting quote; 

 

“Humans cannot retain extensive amounts of information in one sitting. It doesn’t take much to flood human consciousness. Bombarding the senses with data over a number of hours cannot be absorbed. Real learning is both longitudinal and relational.” RL

 

I would have to wonder how anyone could have made it through school and university when not only was the consciousness bombarded in one sitting, it was bombarded every day for many years. 

 

If with think about school, and we use the 80/20 rule for example as a rough guestimate to make my point (students only remember 20% of what they a told).

 

8820 hrs in school (grade one to seven) at 20% = 1764 hrs of data absorption....that's about 58 weeks of schooling 294 weeks of school (7 years)...that's just over one year in seven.

 

That in my world is a lot a days not learning much.

Workplace death rates are going down

I did an interesting the other night. I was again looking at workplace death rates stats (as I have been for sometime), and was staring at the national fatality rate between, 2003 to 2013. Something was not right as I know stats do not always show the truth, why was it going down. I was in a critical thinking state of mind and was trying to work out another reason why rate was trending down (which looks real good). Readers of mine know that I also think that this rate is going down for other reasons, such as better plant and equipment design and more officer ownership of safety. But there had to be more to it.

I thought, what did the unemployment line look like. So I got onto a site showing the employment rate and punched into the graph the dates between 2003 and 2013. I then copied these and placed them next to each other and then looked at them to see if there was any relationship there. At first I could not see anything, but always thinking outside the box, I flipped one graph upside down. There it was; a somewhat similar trending line that when superimposed over the other matched very close the other trending line. What I have observed is that the unemployment rate seems to have a similar line to the death rate. What does this mean? We’ll just on this one point, we cannot look at our death rate and advertise to naive people that safety must be working, that there are other influences that can make a difference to outcomes on graphs. The government is not going to say that workplace death rates are down because unemployment if up are they! I wonder if suicide rates can be related to unemployment, I know they do, I have already looked.



The red and blue lines are what I superimposed; the death rate is red line and blue line is unemployment rate (the red line is the one I turned upside down to relate the incline in unemployment with decrease in deaths (although it looks like an increase in deaths here which is not correct as its upside down)- point here is the
less people working the less death rates - bring on AI

And people call me too passionate and to critical to dam right (you can see why business don't want to employ such high drive and passion for safety – don’t use my research for your own gain!

OHS sector full of leadership incompetence

With all these workplace deaths that happen in Australia every year, other than maybe the real big ones that have inquests, why are the causal factors not released to the public?. Are we afraid of the truth? Do we prefer play them down and forget about them? Is it unethical to lay blame on whatever caused the event? If it’s purely an accident there is nothing to be ashamed of and there still could be some good learnings. If though there are another reasons, such as pressure, unfit plant and equipment, rules not being followed, poor supervision or management etc etc, then these have to be advertised. I want to know the main causality of all workplace incidents. I think there are also too many “phoenix” companies – companies which intentionally go into receivership in order to avoid their legal obligations.

"We want to talk morality and ethics in relation to OHS, I see not much of it being practiced" MD

 

There has to be a few main inherent causalities that do not deserved to be swept under the carpet. There has to be reason why people who allowed for these incidents to occur have been able to kept their jobs. I know of leaders/officers that still work in a company or have gained new employment elsewhere who have contributed to an incident through inaction of known factors. You don’t see this on their LinkedIn profiles, it’s all perfect and full of advertised Safety First promotion and Safety Leadership. It is like the big incidents we have, if there were no inquiries into these, the truth would never be known (other than what crap is spun on TV). Companies would hide every truth and lie about all facts using the old “ah, we didn’t know”...

 

I would propose as a start, that all workplace death causalities and or any other incident requiring state OHS inspectors involvement be made public in central national OHS webpage, that officers to be named if found responsible (this includes harassment, bulling etc). I have seen incidents occur that did not have to occur, but did due to neglect of requirements and the ignoring of best practices. I have seen in these cases not one penalty handed out as WHS Qld was not interested (to under staffed). I have seen the investigation not handled with due consideration and real causal factors hidden. No one seems to be taking safety serious. It’s a reactive industry full of ass covering and incompetence.

Why RULES matter and looseness is loose

Here is an small example of why rules matter and why it’s important to not allow workers under control of organisation to make their own rules up based on their own judgment. in repsonse to this post HERE

I am not a welder, but I know through past procedures and guidelines on welding practices it states that you must not start cutting or welding a sealed drum, tank or any other sealed space without knowing what was in that space first.

Now if I was the owner of this company and had such a basic welding rule, and my deviate loose thinking worker decided to take it upon themselves to not follow a rule that is in place to protect them, and if they are still alive and or I have not been forced to close down due to a this workers death, then I would not want that person working for me. It is very dangerous for safety experts to be telling people to loosen up on rules and use their own judgment within the workplace.

Worker injured in industrial site blast

08:14am, Monday 19 January, 2015

 

A man has been taken to hospital in a critical condition following an explosion at an industrial site in the Central West region of New South Wales, approximately 254 kilometers west of the state capital, Sydney. The incident occurred on Thursday morning. According to reports, the 41 year old worker was cutting the lid off a 44 gallon drum when the drum exploded, causing serious fractures to his head and upper body.Police said they suspected the drum contained explosive materials. This is not the first time a drum explosion has caused injuries to a worker. In September 2014, a drum containing paint thinner exploded at a mobile workshop in High Wycombe causing serious injuries to a worker, while in early July, a man was killed and another seriously injured after a petrol tank exploded at a cattle station at the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. The two were doing welding repair works on the cattle truck when the incident occurred.

 

DSM - how do we get a new listing entered.

If we agree we are just fallible, if we accept that we just operate in autopilot most of the time, if we think we only learn best by trial and error, if we express hindsight as being stupid for determining risk, if we say measuring history to gauge the future is nonsense, if promoting thinking in grey is better than binary thinking, if telling everyone that making hard choices is dangerous, if wanting everyone to be loose on rules is the way forward, if thinking we can learn to think unconsciously is the answer, if telling everyone to unlearn all that we know about safety, if telling people we can know how to adapt to the unexpected/unforeseen/unpredicted will protect us, if advertising to all that planning for the unknown is key to safety, and that safety is a wicked problem that cannot be solved, then we are screwed in safety and you might as well pack it up.

I have seen experts try and allude to us that being cynical, sceptical, pessimistic is toxic, that the very act of cynicism hides behind undisclosed values as only they can discern what is true or not. That this sort of thinking they say is a psychological disposition, and that because its listed in the DSM as a neurosis it must exist...WELL...I am skeptical to all this. I would rather be all these things ten times over than believe in the bullshit spun by some people trying to tell/sell us the next silver bullet. I am optimistic that we could fix safety but as our species cannot work together and that people will push their own agendas, safety won't be solved. I would rather be a realist than live in an unconscious state of unawareness. I think these few things listed in the first paragraph can only show a state of delusional awareness. Can we add professional delusional awareness to the DSM?


 

As for the truth about the DSM click HERE

99%

99% of safety people I have had any dealings with are scared and anxious about applying safety in any practicable manner as raising real issue threatens their job. When talking to them about an issue that needs practical resolve, a resolve they know they cannot raise due to fear of being attacked by production or management, the most common reply I have heard is “I know, but what can you do, best leave as don't wan't to upset anyone”, this is a cop out and weak.

This is referencing the fact that they have chosen to ignore an issue, have preferred to take the easy way out, they have failed as a person practicing due diligence and failed as a safety person. These people are not safety practitioners of any real value, for if risk management cannot be taken serious or you are affraid to raise topics of safety, then you would get more self dignity cleaning toilets. If you ignor safety isues then there cannot be any real value applied to safety. Anyway those who choose to look the other way, who choose to live in grey areas are reward for this ignorance; job security.

Can't believe everyone did not do the moral and ethical things - we live in Dystopia

I just had to reply to this stupid post here in shorts bites (i am sure the author was in dreamer state),  http://www.safetyrisk.net/i-cant-believe-that-nobody-was-seriously-injured/.

Each point is reflection of the original post.

We allowed social free choice and moral judgment – A society example

1.    We no long have engineers checking the integrity of structures and we sacked all those surveyors who check earth movements. We now do a drive by and use a pair of binoculars. All the checklist data that is usually put into the computer model for trending analysis and risk monitoring is all gone, some radical experts said She’ll be right mate”

2.    We now have companies building and fixing roads whenever they like, school teachers can now teach what they want based on what they feel suits them. We have sacked all police because there is not generic rules anymore, people drive to suit what they feel is best, car manufactures have decided to take out all safety devices as the safety by design rules are now governed by the auto group, Mining companies can just dig a hole and not worry about long term environmental issues, we are sure they will do the right thing as moral humans

3.    All safety campaigns and advertising is gone.

4.    We no longer ask any person or business to keep records, we see no value in trying to understand why events occurred who was told about safety issues etc and the last thing we want to do is lay any blame on anyone, we believe they will not cover up evidence and will fix the problems so it will never happen again

5.    If we do require a risk assessment, no scientific data is allowed to be used, we don’t believe in using tested knowledge as way to mitigate further risk,

6.    With all this freedom, our community members are going ape, going around doing as the please, they are so happy with no constraints. Last thing we want in our society is structure and rules, no one likes these things as proven by a novel human survey tool.

7.    We have closed all prisons and mental health facilitates; we all make mistakes, yes even rapists and murderers. They now live in your street and drive around doing burnouts and when you’re not home they will steal your TV and food.

8.    All asylum seekers and new Australian residents do not have to pass any tests to gain a common understanding of Australian traditions and rituals. When anyone walks onto a military base or enters a nuclear reactor plant, all areas are accessible, if visitors what to tell them how to run their workplace, then they will tell them. No one deserves to be told anything, you just have to listen to people telling you as this is the only way we learn.

9.    All road rules and laws have been axed, pilots no longer have to follow any flight prestart procedures as we feel that accidents just happen. Last thing we want is everyone being controlled to some degree, in fact planes can land in any order they want, first in best dressed we feel, let's rid control towers also.

10. Nurses have set a new goal, they say 15% from the mean level of accident is now achievable. There is a great new system better than the old one that will do this; it’s so achievable to lower incidents as we now understand why people make mistakes Dah. They just don’t think 95% of the time and are always running around on auto pilot; we have controlled this through with another new program or mind manipulation. We are glad they now use their own means to manage collective risk.

So, ten years on and society as we know has broken down, There are more wars, more extremist groups fighting over what is right and what is wrong, crime is everywhere, people are being killed because they have no sense of common rules that alert them to such dangers and best collective ways to do things, I would say if you know the Easter Islands story, well, this is what we created; we just did not want to learn or lead our people, the fundamental rule of building a society was broken. We now have to set up a committee to work on trying to bring back sense out of all this chaos, we should have just done what our society needed so it could succeed. Now we have to bring back all the old stuff that actually worked.

Let me just remind everyone that a society cannot exist without structure and rules as man is just as cruel and self-serving as every living thing, we do not allow ourselves free choice because we chose bad choice over moral choice. Anyone who knows a little about social psychology would know this through the scientific study on how we act and what makes us act.