Safety Tidbits: 10-20

It’ll Never Happen To Me…yeah right!

Let’s talk about complacency and failed thinking for a minute. Some people actually believe it always happens to the other guy – because that is the way it seems, UNTIL it happens to YOU!

Case in Point: Remember the Unsinkable Ship – Titanic? It sank in about 90 minutes after a tussle with an iceberg. 

April 15, 1912 Titanic Sinks – 1,493 Lives lost

The direct cause of this accident was a collision with an iceberg. The hull consisted of a large number of compartments, for safety, unusual for a ship of that time but the collision damaged the ship by a tear in the side and many of the compartments were destroyed upon contact. The ship then could not depend on the momentum of the other compartments that should have allowed her to correct her posture (had they not been compromised).  Other causes: the Titanic crew ignored warnings of an iceberg, twice; there was a large amount of drift ice because the departure was delayed by a month; and the crew did not use binoculars for monitoring even in the poor visibility at night. Reasons for the large number of victims were the insufficient number of life-boats, the crew not sending a rescue signal immediately after the collision from theoverconfidence in the hull with many compartments, and a nearby ship the California turning off their wireless and not knowing the meaning of the lamp signal.

You can’t rely on Luck – it eventually runs out. On the job or Off, you may have done a task a thousand times, safely, but you could be injured the very next time.  You cannot allow yourself to get Complacent or Angry while performing a task.  Avoid Rushing and be aware of your level of Fatigue.  It is these four mental states that often lead to injury.  Safety First – Safety Always! Work Smart/Work Safe!

Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work. –Vince Lombardi

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Thanks for the share, WK!