Accident Prevention

[southsoundtree]

Have every meeting start with safety.

Rob, the whole post is great. This line, above, is the simplest nutshell.

I watched a documentary about the CEO who ran Alcoa which is the Aluminum Company of America. They make metal. They move huge amounts of metal. He reported that 5 American workers per hundred have a lost-time accident per year. 5%. His goal was 0%. He was upset at Point O something percent. He felt personally responsible if someone was hurt. He got down to that point zero something percent for lost time accidents.

He started every meeting with safety. This is including addressing the Board of Directors, first thing, safety. Not the longest part of the board of directors meeting, but always first.

As I understand it from outside of that documentary, this coincided with record profits for Alcoa.

 

[ghostice]

A tale from the trenches:

A man told a story of when he was a young field engineer for an oil and gas company. He had started his career at one of the company's gas plants right in a work upswing into a large gas plant turnaround***. His part of the job was under a really tight schedule of 24/7 and would hold others up if not finished on time. He was out on the plant site one morning when an older plant shift foreman came by and had a look at the way things were going. Stuff here and there and everyone in a great hurry gonna make schedule or pass out in the attempt. That's when the shift foreman came up to the young engineer and said Stop. Stop what you guys are doing and we're going to get together and talk about what's going on. So they pulled everyone and had a short sit down to get everyone refocussed, sort out the messes in the scaffolding, the laydown piles and tool cribs and generally get more organized. The young engineer didn't know if this did prevent anything bad from happening, but on the other hand everyone felt better about the job, didn't get hurt and they did finish on time in the end. As the engineer told this story he said that that morning stuck with him all of his 35 year long career. Take the time with your crew to stop and talk about what you're doing that day and make sure every actor knows his/ her lines and what everyone else will be doing.
The engineer gave this little talk at his retirement dinner - he was by then a Vice President with Shell Canada. Safety starts with the CEO/ Owner, works down through management and the buck stops with the guy in charge at the coal face - the superintendent/ foreman/ lead hand.
***Approximate dollars on the table were: after CAPEX and OPEX, this plant made about US $1M her hour profit, so you don't want to be late!

Stay safe everybody - a really good read right now (since Deepwater Horizon is out on DVD/ iTunes) is Disastrous Decisions: The Human and Organisational Causes of the Gulf of Mexico Blowout Paperback – May 31 2012 by Prof. Andrew Hopkins. It chronicles a litany of human failures on every level.

Tom I am so sorry about your friend, my condolences.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Thanks

Great story from the field

 

[treehumper]

I watched a documentary about the CEO who ran Alcoa which is the Aluminum Company of America.

If you look at my earlier post you'll find him giving a presentation on his work there. His name is Paul O'Neill. Alcoa's value was 5 times higher by the time he left.

The part I like best is when the managers asked if they could just set the fatality goal at 1 person, he asked them to find a volunteer to be that person.

 

[ghostice]

Really well written article on working with blinders on or on "autopilot":
http://www.treemagineers.com/blog/when-getting-there-at-any-cost-becomes-the-only-option/

 

[southsoundtree]

Hahaha

Been "out of it" sick twice in a couple weeks. Poor sleep patterns and lot of fevery Netflix, etc watching. Got a bit mixed up.

I'd heard about O'Neill, before though, not just fever- nonsense.

Almost healthy again.

 

[RopeShield]

Opening of the article we wrote in Arbclimber magazine 'Staying Alive'. Thank you all that contributed.


“It is better to be careful 100 times than to get killed once." (Mark Twain)

Staying alive and the hate of pain are at the forefront of this article. Hate of pain in reference to what we endure as arbclimbers and as has happened so many times in the past to those who suffered at the hands of death. How do we avoid accidents? We avoid them by managing fatigue, distraction, performance and applying sound techniques, tools or a system to ensure optimal performance. We have all suffered and survived moderate to severe physical trauma including; contusions, abrasions, lacerations, and bone fractures as well as the more common soft tissue injury to ligaments, muscles, tendons from sprain, strain and over use of specific body parts. Our scars should not be a badge of honour for our efforts but more a motivator to positively address performance. The following article is one arbclimbers study in preventing accidents through systematic method of anticipating failures, evaluating and pretesting practices and plans, controlling out comes, transitioning and applying solutions to recover/rest, to recognize stress and life threatening accidents. Pain is the symptom of a deficiency or excess in our routine, life and work.

Anticipate, Evaluate and Pretest, Control Outcomes, Practice and Plan and finally Transition for failure as well as success. I say failure in the way that knowing what can go wrong is as crucial as to knowing what can go right.

 

[treehumper]

How do we avoid accidents? We avoid them by managing fatigue, distraction, performance and applying sound techniques, tools or a system to ensure optimal performance

In order to do this we must first check our attitude at the beginning of the day. Too many are still chest pounding about how badass they are and how badass something was etc…. The way an industry matures is by the maturing of it's players. Time to act like adults… you know, boring, safe, painfully aware of their own mortality…

 

[TJG]

Leaders put their efforts in these areas as a means to delegate through the organization the responsibility in an effort to create buy in and a flow of information back up through the organization. How will that reach and effect the behavior/decision making by the worker? Through the coaching and mentoring of each supervisor at each level. Have every meeting start with safety. Discuss the issues and challenges, mentor toward changing behavior without the threat of termination for non-compliance. This will establish its priority in the pecking order it's raised. No rushing through it to get to "more important matters". It is the most important one bar none. Every supervisor must take that stand.

Too often a crew leader won't bring up safety issues for fear that it will lead to the loss of income for the employee and thus their ability to support their family or themselves. They'll let it slide because nothing bad happens. Instead of finding a way to coach they'll keep letting it go only chastising for the worse near misses. The one's that can't be hidden. The next level manager needs to be more astute in their appraisal of such incidents. They are not one offs but usually systemic.

Companies do need to have a zero fatality/incident goal but it's the implementation of that and the persistent management that will eventually bring it to the frontline.

I worked for a Bayer( i.e the aspirin company) they were huge on safety. I was on a safety committee and we would just brain storm and come up with safety ideas then management would implement them. It was a plastics research division. Never had a better job as far as pay and benefits and the lack of having to work hard. Because I was in Maintenance I would get 2 pair of safety boots a year steel toe and excellent quality. I also got $200 gift cards for being on the committee. that was 18 years ago. I guess the figured that the cost of a work related injury was worth the extra money. The place was so laid back I don't think anyone got so much as a paper cut. Those were the days. But it was boring except for the fact we would use a corporate credit card to buy things we could use to go Cod and Tuna fishing. We'd watch the weather if the seas looked calm we take off that afternoon and head for the Cape. Which made the boring part better. I guess my point to this story would be that a workman's comp. claim would cost more than taking the time to do it safely and talk to each other.

 

[treehumper]

Exactly! The true total cost of a WC incident is mind-blowing.

 

[treehumper]

Yes, under skilled workers are dangerous, just as dangerous as overconfident veterans. Your experience is great but the stats don't seem to bear out your supposition. Do I think putting shiny shirts and fancy helmets and pants on a noobie then sticking them in way beyond their ability is safe? Nope. Proper training and development and an attitude that one's life and wellbeing is more important. Walk before you run, low and slow is the way to go.

The industry like most of the skilled trades is suffering from a shortage of people, skilled or otherwise. That leaves companies struggling to find people to do the work. We also suffer from an inability to sell our work for it's real value which leads to the piss poor pay you speak of. Silly as they may be the regs arouse from incidents that have killed and injured too many. What does that mean? It's not the majority just enough though to make it an issue.

 

[rope-a-dope]

For the sake of clarification...
I would love to be paid more, but please explain how paying the worker MORE makes him LESS likely to kill himself trying to earn said pay?
I understand that people go where the $$ are, but what does that do for their quality of work or level of competency? I know just asking a bunch of questions is obnoxious, but I'm not understanding how pay effects risk.

 

[TJG]

I'm not trying to argue. You are correct, when the safety program is in place it works... Most of the time. Big names in our industry Davey, Bartlett ect all have safety programs. I could only imagine the carnage if they didn't, but still they seem have problems at times. The climber that fell with the ash in the Carolinas a couple years ago, a friend of mine broke his collar bone a little over a year ago (both big green).
And you are also correct, I speak of a system the is not working correctly. When something doesn't work right bad things happen. When bad things happen we die! Whether it's the climber, boss or salesmans fault, the system is consistently not working.
The chipper illustrates my point. How many more sticker, terrible pictures and warnings do we need to put on these machines. There is a program in place (as long as they have eyes and can see) yet we still are killing people in these tools. So the answer is not to train these personnel but put "safeties" such as chip safe, operator presence devices and rope shearing knives on machines. So we can truly have idiots running our equipment. Twice last year the "new guy" when through. Why? No training! Nobody working with them?
Now I may be arguing, but it pisses me off that we are doing this to ourselves. We in the industry know the hazards, but we don't tell our guys or they don't listen or we rush an underbid. Most newbies don't care to learn, just want to do the fun stuff.
Those of us doing it right can't talk to the guys doing it wrong, they don't trust us! They have gotten away with it this long why change now. But yet most have to compete with that.
End of rant... For now

Good Rant I liked everything you have to say smaller companies were the guys are close tend to communicate better the longer they work together. The other point you made is things look allot different in most cases when your in a tree and can see every situation. Communication is key between co-workers as well as trust. If anyone see's or thinks there is a hazard they should point it out and be rewarded for it even if it's a simple thanks I didn't see that or your correct I'm having a bad day! Nothing should be taken for granted and every tree and situation is going to be different. Mother nature did make all tree exactly the same not even close. There is my 2 cents!!

 

[treehumper]

"under skilled workers are dangerous, just as dangerous as overconfident veterans"
This is without a doubt the dumbest statement I have read during my short time here.

Actually the stats bear this statement out. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5815a2.htm#Tab1

While it doesn't express the years of experience, it's over 10 yrs if I remember correctly.

Oh and I completely agree with you about the pay scale in our business. It's way too low but that's due to our inability to sell our work as it should be, knowledge based with the physical skill to do the work.

Every skilled trade has the problem of hiring new people. They aren't seen as viable futures or to have the ability to provide sufficient incomes to support the "American Dream".

Yes, it's inherently dangerous but shit doesn't have to happen. Mining, construction, flying, smelting, steelwork all are inherently dangerous but steps have been taken and continue to be taken to reduce that risk. Saying shit, meaning death and injuries are gonna happen therefore we should just accept it and move on is the dumbest thing said. This is work and it's meant to provide a living not kill us. If anybody wants to really take risks and push the boundaries, get into base jumping, slack lining over a 1000' drop, rock climb free solo or any number of extreme sports.

For me, I love the challenge that this work presents and finding a way to get wood on the ground, 200 days a year or more. I also love coming home to my family and all the rest of the things I do in my private life. I work to live, not the other way around.

 

[Steve Connally]

Wow, thats pretty not cool.

 

[JD3000]

Second that.

 

[Nish]

The arborist industry needs to be honest with itself and admit that hiring under skilled, sub-par workers for shit pay is the single greatest threat to safety.

Good point, well made. In past ages maybe these ground workers would have been sent to the front lines as cannon fodder. Now they only have to drag brush, with a very slight chance of dying violently and gloriously in the maw of a chipper or under the crushing weight of a tumbling ponderosa. Maybe we're still making progress.

 

[Leroy]

Usually after a post is edited that type of language is taken out.... Come on Erik, don't take it so personally, it's just an internet forum, mate.

 

[flyingsquirrel25]

Its really simple. More potential earnings attracts higher quality people. Higher quality=quicker to become skilled=less likely to do something stupid and hurt someone. Its a simple, sad truth. I hate to break the news to you all , but $30 an hour is not enough to live on in a large % of America these days. Why would a smart, young buck want to go into a line of work where he has no real chance at home-ownership, and any sense of security. He's gonna go elsewhere. My own experience working in the woods for many years, has proven it. As I have watched wages slowly and steadily drop, I have seen the bar be lowered on what is an acceptable skill level. I truly believe that skill is the single most important factor in injuries.

Have you looked at off shore mining in Alaska??? More potential earning.... But every drunk, addict, and flunky is headed there to get their piece of the pie. High quality individuals too! (yea right) I'm obviously just a youngster compared to you, might as well be a greenhorn, but in my almost 20 years I haven't seen any wage drop. Might want to get your eyes checked and take a lesson in economics. Wages don't go down, cost of living goes up. Our problem is the wages cant keep up with the cost of living... But sure lets up the minimum wage that will help right.... I started out at 18 earning 5.50 an hour, every lazy a$$ teenager with their nose in their phone starts at 12-15. And you want me to pay him 20-30, so he will work harder.... You are out of your mind.... Maybe you have been hit on the head too many times without a hard had on.

 

[monkeylove]

Have you looked at off shore mining in Alaska??? More potential earning.... But every drunk, addict, and flunky is headed there to get their piece of the pie. High quality individuals too! (yea right) I'm obviously just a youngster compared to you, might as well be a greenhorn, but in my almost 20 years I haven't seen any wage drop. Might want to get your eyes checked and take a lesson in economics. Wages don't go down, cost of living goes up. Our problem is the wages cant keep up with the cost of living... But sure lets up the minimum wage that will help right.... I started out at 18 earning 5.50 an hour, every lazy a$$ teenager with their nose in their phone starts at 12-15. And you want me to pay him 20-30, so he will work harder.... You are out of your mind.... Maybe you have been hit on the head too many times without a hard had on.

Wow you are young, I think minimum wage was around $3.25 when I turned 18.