Sustaining a "non-life threatening" mishap myself this week I was reminded of different injury accidents I have had the distinct and stink pleasure of investigating over the years. Is there such creature as an "accident-prone" or "accident waiting to happen" person? I tried not to have that mindset, but sometimes....
For example, I had a hard-working, friendly, experienced forestry worker who I met more frequently than I cared to...in the emergency room. Each episode more thrilling than the last. The final straw was when he almost cut off his own leg cutting UPHILL with a powered chain saw. Thank goodness for leather chaps. I told him in emergency that I sure was getting tired of calling his wife to let her know the latest adventure. He would just smile at me and ask when he could get back to work. Now that I think about it he usually worked alone. That should have been a clue.
Another beloved worker bee at the plant seemed to have more first aid issues than seemed normal.
Digress: The Heinrich theory of occurrences states there are 300 incidents, FA (first aid) or otherwise before one lost time accident occurs. In other words you have been warned. It is so hard not to count failures of a system rather than successes as they are much more dramatic, but I have never changed someone's mind by telling them what "could" happen next based on statistics.
Anyway back to the point on the beloved worker bee. When monitoring an operation at the plant I asked why there were so few working on the issue. They said well "so and so" is part of the crew but we just set him aside as accidents tend to happen around him or to him, etc. See the people always know but they never bear witness before the worst happens.
How to keep people aware at all times of hazards is impossible no matter the intensity of nagging. But to explain to the engineers that designing a machine or process to be "fool-proof" usually elicits claims of "they're just lazy". No they're worried about the mortgage, their child's problems in school, their spouse's birthday. Also how anyone can ever design something without ever setting foot into the space or speaking with the operators is excessively arrogant. "Book learning" is great added to experience; if not yours than others.
My machine guarding training explained the importance of designing and using guarding that would not let someone come anywhere near the point of operation. That came home to me at MIOSHA when one of my employees and myself went into a plant MIOSHA had shut down to perform machine guarding training. Imagine tasked with trying to educate fellow employees just after an accident that took both of a young woman's arms. She was caught in a press which no one knew how to back off. She had to stand there in shock and agony until the fire department and another plant's experts came in to release her from the press' unrelenting grip. I think management attention to proper procedures and guarding would have been a lot less devastating and expensive. If I was not a believer before I got religion.
That seems to be the problem a lot of the time. The modern "doubting Thomas' " do not believe unless they see it, feel it, taste it, (so glad I didn't step in it). Time to believe in science and other's expertise. Together we are stronger, healthier, happier and alive.
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