Today my friend Teresa posted the following on Twitter: Accidents are never funny. And the picture of the broken chair can give you an idea of how serious this could have been. I immediately tweeted her back asking why she didn’t routinely check her chair. “I need to do that?” she wondered. I’ve worked around…
Tag Archive: accident
Is “Idiot-Proof” The Same As Safer?
The Consumer Products Safety Commission was established to help protect us from design of faulty products. Or, as stated on their website, the commission “…is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction.” Much of what they do is an…
Measuring Opposites
One of the things that struck me as odd when I first starting working in a manufacturing facility is the way we measured safety. The big sign on the way in to the plant indicated the number of days since the last accident. A reminder that unfortunately was set back to “1″ far too often….
Can We Control Random Events?
In the past I have written about luck and it’s role in safety. We think we can control everything, but there is very little we truly control. I’ve worked around big machines my whole life. Machines don’t kill people, but people die from making mistakes while working with them. Machines are totally unforgiving of human error, which…
A Culture of Preparedness – Obligation #2
The other day I took up the challenge from Trish to help managers consider what they can do to assure that we are not just compliant with safety issues, but also prepared and actively managing safety. What I have seen work is embodied in three obligations that belong to each and every employee. The first…
Luck and Lottery – Part 2
At the end of the Part 1 post, I proposed a couple of acronyms: Lottery – Highly Improbable Favorable Outcome (HIFO), I have to consciously decide to buy the ticket. Safety – Highly Improbable Disastrous Outcome (HIDO), I consciously and unconsciously buy tickets. The basic idea I am working from here is that to win the lottery, you need…
Could You Drive From the Right?
Coming home from work today, I was behind this car in Atlanta traffic, and it struck me that there would be a number of challenges facing even the most experienced driver if they were to find themselves behind the wheel. Turning would be different. You could easily underestimate the position of the car now that…
Signage – Do We Care About the Font?
You may have heard the story at the end of September that a Federal mandate is requiring that all street signs be changed to a font called “Clearview” and that signs are not ALL CAPS. The reason is simple enough – the easier a sign is to read, the less a driver’s attention is taken…
6 Ways To Override Safety
The helmet law for motorcyclists is a frequently argued regulation. In the late 1960′s, the federal government began to make highway construction funds contingent on states having laws requiring helmet use for all motorcycle riders. This was eventually undone, and states began the long process of considering repeal of their laws. The whole cycle began…
2 Physics Lessons That Could Save Your Life
It’s been cold in Atlanta this week. Thursday evening we had a rain and snow event which left our roads icy and dangerous. I’ve lived in places that routinely get weather like this, but Atlanta gets it so infrequently that people don’t get a chance to develop the skills to drive when conditions are icy….
