ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Occupational Safety Discussion What is the #1 principle of Safety?.

Trumpy,

Good comments and ideas, yes!

Playing Devil's Advocate here; It would be nice if things were that simple, but how can they be? It would be a very rare thing nowadays if someone could really be totally responsible for their own actions.

Pick any situation where someone gets injured in any way and there will be other people affected somehow, either directly or indirectly. Common sense is a great basis, but some Knowledge is necessary too. Common sense and Knowledge are really good together, but when working with others some coordination or procedure becomes necessary too.

I don't pretend to know much at all about this subject, but I would say that common sense isn't something that can be taught. Everyone has varying degrees of it and motivation too. Sometimes training can make up for some lack of these qualities. Many times some specialized knowledge is needed too, where does it come from? How do you know if you need it? How do you know if the guy before you, or next to you has it, or needs it?

It's one thing to think you only need to depend on common sense to keep yourself out of trouble, but would you like to, or is it fair to make you depend on someone elses'?

Bill

Bill,
You want to play Devil's Advocate a wee bit more with respect to this Forum!.
I LOVE a challenge, to my way of thinking. And I think that it is really cool that you are willing to provide this effect, keep it up I say!!.
But on the other side of the coin, I think that Personal Initiative has to come into the equation, if you cannot think for yourself, what use are you to a team of Electrical workers.

[This message has been edited by Trumpy (edited 08-09-2003).]

mine would be: pay attention!

A common theme here seems to be using one's head and I agree. Although there can be requirements for PPE and endless safety procedures to follow, the bottom line is that an individual needs to use his head, be aware of his surroundings, watch out for his buddy, and intervene whenever necessary.

Jim

Yes, one's own common sense has to be balanced with knowledge and of course to some extent we all depend upon the actions of others for our own safety as well.

Playing Devil's Advocate myself for a moment, I do wonder sometimes whether today's culture of "somebody else is responsible" might not contribute to the lack of common sense applied by some people:

Why do I need to think about what I'm doing that carefully? Somebody else is charge of safety, aren't they?

I think we have to accept that as in most areas of life, the responsibility has to be shared. It might be somebody else's job to be on the lookup for possible hazards, but that doesn't mean that everybody else shouod stop thinking for themselves.

Everybody's Job

[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 08-25-2003).]

Recently we had an outside contractor in to inspect our cooling towers. Apparently quite recently this company lost an employee when a cooling tower fan that he was tied off to was started. I do not know the particulars of the LOTO used in that case, but this guy was sure careful when I was clearing a fan for his inspection. We showed him the controls for the fan, which we taped over with a note, and we locked out the breaker with our lock and tag, and he placed his own lock and tag in a separate hole on the breaker and tagged it. The thing that was pretty cool was his do not operate tag actually had a picture of him on it, with a warning that his life was in your hands!

It's a shame that accidents like that happen, but hopefully their employees and management learned how very important safety is, and will continue to thoroughly enforce safety rules.

With digital cameras, color printers, and inexpensive laminating machines, it is pretty easy to produce LOTO tags that are personalized. We've used them in our facility for several years now. Aside from somewhat improved safety, it does make it a lot easier to find the guy who locked it out.

I'd just like to put this one in:
Look out for yourself and also look out for your mate, beside you!
A lot of accidents can happen because of someone elses work.