New TCIA Article

Steve good job.
Read across from other fields is often very revealing in terms of how we think in our own worlds from day to day. You might be interested in "The Black Swan" by Nassim Taleb - his treatise on improbable events with large impacts (he previously made his living as a quant in some large trading company). He has some very funny comments on log normally distributed data! Also probably worth looking up some of his work is Prof Andrew Hopkins from Australia who has written and taught on "Management of work health and safety; Risk management and decision making in hazardous industries; High reliability organizations; Industrial disasters; Organizational culture and its effects on work health and safety; Regulation of work health and safety." (From his website) Fascinating guy.
I also liked a book"Normal Accidents" by Charles Perrow more on why systems go KaBoom but still worth a read.

On the subject of backcountry ski accidents I do think that avi hazard and terrain are much much more variable than our work in trees - I look at some of the frankly goofballs out there backcountry skiing (and that includes some guides I know) when conditions are sketchy and just shake my head a lot these days.
Cheers all and stay safe out there
 
Thanks @ghostice I have had a little exposure to Nassim and the Black Swan. I did a rabbit hole after reading about a separate event over the last few years being referred to a Black Swan. I'll have to add all your recommendations to the list. What brought you to read them? Not the usual types of books recommended on here. Curious.....
 
I still just tend to read "laterally" from my initial science training and have 35 yrs in legal and in corporate industrial health and then project technical safety in larger oil and gas and petrochem (> ~$6 B USD) projects with a buncha time spent in multinationals - they have exceptional technical H&S and risk management processes, esp. the company's from the EU and UK. I do find the H&S aspect of treework, including in organizations like TCIA, interesting and especially so the framing of risk in arborist practice (e.g. TRAQ) v.s. in process industry. I've also seen attempts at use of risk matrices (for example in climbing tree risk assessments in Canada here) that have tried an industrial risk matrix approach and also the "pyramid approach" to near miss v.s. incident frequency. It's just interesting to compare approaches and to see where different industries are at in terms of their journey down the "safety road". Keep at it Steve. Cheers
 
ghostice said:
I still just tend to read "laterally" from my initial science training and have 35 yrs in legal and in corporate industrial health and then project technical safety in larger oil and gas and petrochem (> ~$6 B USD) projects with a buncha time spent in multinationals - they have exceptional technical H&S and risk management processes, esp. the company's from the EU and UK. I do find the H&S aspect of treework, including in organizations like TCIA, interesting and especially so the framing of risk in arborist practice (e.g. TRAQ) v.s. in process industry. I've also seen attempts at use of risk matrices (for example in climbing tree risk assessments in Canada here) that have tried an industrial risk matrix approach and also the "pyramid approach" to near miss v.s. incident frequency. It's just interesting to compare approaches and to see where different industries are at in terms of their journey down the "safety road". Keep at it Steve. Cheers
Click to expand...
Not it all makes complete sense. Thanks for the explanation. People on here have such interesting backgrounds.
 
Good article, Steve.

I too found it fascinating reading about avalanche stats and that some of the most well trained and experienced back country users were frequently avy victims.

Expert halo is fascinating too. My understanding of expert halo is that often it is a designated formal leader (rather than informal), e.g. a mountain guide, whose decision making can be faulty yet it is unquestioned by the followers because he is viewed as 'the expert'. Thus, avoidable accidents and incidents occur.
 
cory said:
Good article, Steve.

I too found it fascinating reading about avalanche stats and that some of the most well trained and experienced back country users were frequently avy victims.

Expert halo is fascinating too. My understanding of expert halo is that often it is a designated formal leader (rather than informal), e.g. a mountain guide, whose decision making can be faulty yet it is unquestioned by the followers because he is viewed as 'the expert'. Thus, avoidable accidents and incidents occur.
Click to expand...
Thanks Cory. I think your example is pretty applicable. I found this in the Fire Department a lot where someone is in a position they are not qualified for. I don't think it falls directly into a heuristic but, for my example, more of a Peter Principle thing. I think your example is better and maybe the illusion of that person "having" to be qualified otherwise they wouldn't be a leader. People may assume that and be intimidated to speak up.
 
Steve Connally said:
the illusion of that person "having" to be qualified otherwise they wouldn't be a leader. People may assume that and be intimidated to speak up.
Click to expand...
Yes, that is the exact scenario I read about in a mountain setting- the hikers didn't report their concerns to the leader and it led to some death and injury
 
avalanche.org

Avalanche.org » Accidents

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC) maintains the database of record on avalanche deaths in the United States. Please use the data displayed here in conjunction with the following citation: Colorado Avalanche Information Center, US Avalanche Accident Reports, [url], [date accessed]...
avalanche.org avalanche.org
This is a pretty interesting site.
 
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