- Location
- California
Yes, accidents do happen. We are dealing with human nature which is quite imperfect, some more than others (you know who you are
). This is why:
1. A safety culture has to be developed so that everyone has the opportunity to buy in and do the right thing the right way, and others are there on the job site to actively care when that human nature shows up. Everyone has to care enough about doing it right so they can encourage (however you need to define that) others in doing the right and safe thing. If people don't cooperate in this, the need to find another job. This is management's responsiblility.
2. Responsibility absolutly starts from the top down. The owner/management/supervisors must make sure everyone in the field has the proper training and equipment to do the job at hand. They set the standard. If they are ignorant they need to learn or hire someone who knows. They need to set the example on and off the jobsite. They also need to immediately deal with those who do not want to play along. If they do not, or if they have policies or common practices that go against industry safety standards, then they are at fault.
3. The field folks have the responsibility to use their knowledge, experience, training, and wisdom to make sure they go home with all their pieces still attached. If they decide, in spite of what they have been trained for, in spite of their knowledge of ANSI/OSHA standards and company policies, to do something different that causes and injury or death, then the consequesnces land on their sholders (no pun intended). If they have never been trained and/or informed at a level that one would reasonably expect them to have for a certain situation, then it goes back to management.
4. Training, follow-up evaluations, equipment inspections, job site inspections, and DOCUMENTAION of all the above help to protect you when someone decides to take a short-cut (or a short rope) and do something they know they shouldn't. If it doesn't get written down then it didn't happen. Documentation is the only thing you have to prove you did it. Human nature does show up, but if management does what it OUGHT to do, then they have taken every reasonable step to insure a safe environment for their workers and it now points to the person in the field.
While one may not be completely protected from being sued, if you have all this in place you will perhaps protect yourself from having to pay out for someone else's nature showing up.
This case is another good example of how dangerously deceiving certain short-cuts are in the tree biz. There are so many things one can do 100 times and nothing will happen. Then, everything wrong happens and people get seriously hurt or killed.
IMO the owner is at fault because important elements listed above were not in place and they actually set a dangerous standard, which probably worked fine many times before, that goes against common industry practices.
1. A safety culture has to be developed so that everyone has the opportunity to buy in and do the right thing the right way, and others are there on the job site to actively care when that human nature shows up. Everyone has to care enough about doing it right so they can encourage (however you need to define that) others in doing the right and safe thing. If people don't cooperate in this, the need to find another job. This is management's responsiblility.
2. Responsibility absolutly starts from the top down. The owner/management/supervisors must make sure everyone in the field has the proper training and equipment to do the job at hand. They set the standard. If they are ignorant they need to learn or hire someone who knows. They need to set the example on and off the jobsite. They also need to immediately deal with those who do not want to play along. If they do not, or if they have policies or common practices that go against industry safety standards, then they are at fault.
3. The field folks have the responsibility to use their knowledge, experience, training, and wisdom to make sure they go home with all their pieces still attached. If they decide, in spite of what they have been trained for, in spite of their knowledge of ANSI/OSHA standards and company policies, to do something different that causes and injury or death, then the consequesnces land on their sholders (no pun intended). If they have never been trained and/or informed at a level that one would reasonably expect them to have for a certain situation, then it goes back to management.
4. Training, follow-up evaluations, equipment inspections, job site inspections, and DOCUMENTAION of all the above help to protect you when someone decides to take a short-cut (or a short rope) and do something they know they shouldn't. If it doesn't get written down then it didn't happen. Documentation is the only thing you have to prove you did it. Human nature does show up, but if management does what it OUGHT to do, then they have taken every reasonable step to insure a safe environment for their workers and it now points to the person in the field.
While one may not be completely protected from being sued, if you have all this in place you will perhaps protect yourself from having to pay out for someone else's nature showing up.
This case is another good example of how dangerously deceiving certain short-cuts are in the tree biz. There are so many things one can do 100 times and nothing will happen. Then, everything wrong happens and people get seriously hurt or killed.
IMO the owner is at fault because important elements listed above were not in place and they actually set a dangerous standard, which probably worked fine many times before, that goes against common industry practices.
