Despite serious efforts and unmistakable progress, the end goal of zero accidents still remains elusive. A point often brutally made by reports of yet another serious worker injury or fatal accidents. And while this time it did not happen on your site, maybe it might have. Care to investigate the probability of you having to deal with a work related fatality in the foreseeable future? Then ask yourself these questions.
“Is my sector more or less prone to serious injuries and fatalities?”
As stated in the previous and first of this 3-part series: manufacturing takes the unenviable lead in non-fatal accidents, but it’s construction that suffers the most fatalities. Transportation & storage follows as an uncomfortably close third. Agriculture, forestry and fishing, together with wholesale and retail trade, fill out the top 5 sectors most affected by fatal accidents.
Your remedial potential: low
“Does my safety system go beyond what regulations dictate?”
While strict adherence to continuously evolving laws and regulations is an absolute must, so is expanding upon those rules. You are uniquely positioned to detect, evaluate and thus counter risks specific to your work-environment. Also, every opportunity to improve worker safety,and prevent a (non) fatal accident should be thoroughly explored and implemented.
Your remedial potential: high
“Do I recognize safety as a priority that benefits productivity”
Investing in safety might still be perceived as a cost, but a growing number of companies acknowledge its significant returns. With proven and quantifiable savings on assets, people, maintenance and energy, as well as the avoidance of many direct and indirect costs and time lost as result of an accident. Also investing in safety comes with a lot of attractive added bonuses: a more productive worker morale, access to a better workforce pool, a more attractive corporate image, … .
Your remedial potential: high
“Are my workers completely on board with all safety protocols?”
Having a robust safety system is great. But is it effectively communicated to the people that it’s designed for? Do they understand and accept the rationale behind it? Do they have the proper training and is that training still as relevant today as it was yesterday? What’s their compliance and do you have the tools to evaluate and enforce that compliance?
Your remedial potential: high
“Does my site employ heavy machinery or hazardous materials?”
How well is this machinery maintained? How efficient are the protocols for handling hazardous materials and how well are my workers trained? Are you up to date with new safety technologies in Permit-to-Work, zone-, access- and control-of-work management?
Your remedial potential: high
“Do I have forklifts/heavy mobile machinery running at my site?”
Statistically, one in ten forklifts will be involved in an accident. Not during its lifetime but every year! And these numbers represent forklift accidents that involve either death or serious injury. In 2019 around one fifth (21.5 %) of fatal accidents resulted from losing control of a machine, tool or transport/handling equipment. Serious, cautionary numbers, but nevertheless …
Your remedial potential: high
“Do on-foot workers share space with vehicles?”
1 in 5 forklift accidents and 1 in 3 forklift-related deaths involve a worker on foot. Fatalities from collision with pedestrians rank as follows: crushed between vehicle and a surface (25%), crushed between two vehicles (11%), struck or run over (10%). We do acknowledge that separating the operating space of pedestrians and drivers is not always an option, but this should only urge you to take extra safety measures.
Your remedial potential: medium, but every improvement is significant
“Does my site have one or more loading docks?”
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), approximately 25% of accidents occurring in warehouses and manufacturing facilities are concentrated around the loading docks. These accidents involve workers being caught between forklifts and trailers during the process of loading or unloading goods. Given the typical height of loading docks, falls frequently lead to injuries, sometimes severe. Furthermore, workers can be struck by trucks that are unaware of their presence, and the inherent nature of loading and unloading heavy items creates a significant risk for injuries.
Your remedial potential: high
“Does my safety system account for visitors and external workers?”
Your workforce should be aware of general and site-specific risks and trained to prevent accidents. However, the same can not be expected of visitors. They have the least sense of their environment and emergency procedures, … and the highest chance to win a lawsuit. OSHA designates you as the ‘host employer’, and as such responsible for everyone on your premises. This responsibility ranges from access control and accident prevention, to evacuation management.
Your remedial potential: high
“Am I aware of new safety technologies that can improve my current system(s)?”
No matter how solid your current safety system, you should always strive for improvement. Today’s innovations in safety technology offer broader and tangibly more efficient options to keep your workers safe from injury or a fatal accident. Often with the added benefit of substantially improving your worker safety compliance, the performance of your material handling equipment, the efficiency of your operations as well as your bottom line.
Your remedial potential: depends on how up to date your current system is
This is the second post in a 3-part series revolving around fatal work related accidents. In part I we examined the devastated effects of a deadly accident. In the next and final part we take closer look at 5 real life scenarios where worker safety technology has saved worker lives.
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