Tool Box Talk: Unwavering Safety

Unwavering Safety

“Developing a strong safety culture and delivering superior safety performance is achieved by having dedicated and engaged leadership working with a committed and skilled workforce. Together, we work toward the goal of zero injuries, illnesses and incidents. Our businesses develop programmes that emphasize personal and process safety. Our improvement in safety performance has resulted in significantly fewer people being injured, but we cannot rest on that success. We must continually work to achieve the goal of zero. We strive to be a learning organization and as such encourage the reporting of both actual incidents and near misses. Although a near miss is an event without immediate consequences, we recognize that it could have resulted in personal injury, property damage, fire, process upset, spill, release or other failures. If a potential hazard is identified through a near miss or other hazard analysis, we believe reporting the problem is not enough;we implement corrective actions to address the root cause in order to eliminate recurrence.”

The preceding was an excerpt from ConocoPhillips, a company that shares our ideals and commitment to safety and proves that we are not alone.

We must recognize that making a commitment and talking about safety is not enough to achieve our objective; most importantly we must put what we commit to and talk about into practice in everything we do, even the so-called little things.

Listen to “Bob,” a worker relates what happened to him on the job.

“I worked as a truck driver for 27 years. As I was preparing a load in the back of the truck, the roll-up door malfunctioned and rolled up. The strap was hanging down, and the only way for me to close the door was to jump up & grab the strap. I did, but the door didn’t budge. I felt something pull in my back. When I awoke the next morning, I couldn’t walk. I went to the doctor and all they wanted to do was give me pain pills. Later I found out I had two herniated discs. I tried to return to work at a different job, but it was physically impossible with my injuries. The doctor told me there isn’t much that can be done about my back, except to have a complete back fusion, which is very risky, and not a certain cure. I’m in constant pain. I complained of migraines and shoulder pain and they shrugged it off as being associated with the back injury. Then an MRI found a four centimetre tear in my rotator cuff. This was found two years after my injury. The damage was very extensive. I recently had surgery that repaired the rotator cuff. The insurer would not authorize antibiotics and sent me home without them.” –Bob

The story goes on but you get the point – everyday workers suffer workplace injuries. Often times these injuries are a result of a knee-jerk reaction – somebody doing something without taking the time to Stop, Think and Ask/Plan. Bob says the “only way to close the door was to jump up and grab the strap.” But now, after the fact, we can clearly see there are other ways (e.g., using a ladder, using an extended reach hook, etc.)

When conditions or plans change, take time to re-evaluate the risks and plan accordingly! The next step you take could be your last. When Low Priority Tasks demand too much time – Big Problems can arise! Our work is never so urgent or important that we cannot take the time to do it safely.

And a bonus quote from Robert J. McKain:

“The reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first.”

Thanks to TO for the share!