SAFETY
We continued
with the tasks
at hand, most right
beside the boss.
But what was on those
corners that we cut and just
discarded,
The click of a seatbelt, an
extra weld, or an area to be
guarded?
Maybe one contained the right
to stop unnecessary risk,
Did one of those corners say
we should’ve pre-planned this
task to make sure we got the
gist?
Fast forward just a bit to a
different place and time,
An incident has happened to a
co-worker of yours and mine.
A serious injury, damage or
vehicle accident,
Now questions are being asked
about where all those corners
went.
We never had bad intentions,
we just wanted to get it done.
What I wouldn’t say then, but
I knew all along, is the need
for the corners…each and
every one.
This short narrative is not
to insinuate that those in
our industry are regularly
throwing safety and all its
regulations to the wind.
The current state of safety
is thankfully making that
mindset a thing of the past.
Catching outliers
I personally think that the
most effective safety cultures
– and what should be our goal
– are the ones that can catch
17
MARCH 2014
ACT
a new worker perhaps, and
what he or she may have
been feeling. As we read
the fictional account below,
(the rhyming is intentional
but I won’t call it a poem),
let’s consider how close this
could be to the truth among
members of our family,
friends or co-workers in their
everyday activities.
Guys, lets imagine this next
project as an instructional
piece of paper,
Full of steps, rules, and fail
safes, all things to make us
safer.
These steps are all good and
most we won’t discard,
But most of us are really
experienced and we worked
really hard.
Now grab the proverbial
scissors, as we’re in a bit of a
rush,
We’ve got deadlines to meet,
but there’s no need to fuss.
We know that some of these
steps are just extra and
redundant,
We’ll just cut a few corners
and the time saved will be
abundant.
I listened as I looked around
but all the stares were straight
ahead,
I felt a little uncomfortable
about the things being said.
There’s parts of this task that I
really don’t get,
I’m not about to say something;
I don’t want to be called a
snitch.
As we cut a few corners and the
information there was lost,
THE AUTHOR
Daniel Erwin
is director of
safety for TNT
Crane & Rigging
in Houston.
Daniel Erwin
observes that
cutting corners
can definitely
play a role in an
incident.
the “outliers.” The ones, like
the fictional supervisor in
the poem, who do not desire
harm but who is still willing
to occasionally practice
schedule-driven safety or the
idea that it’s acceptable to cut
corners here and there when
no one is looking.
A strong safety culture must
be led from the upper echelon
of management down to the
newest employee and must do
everything possible to focus
on each and every employee.
Let’s make this our continuous
goal.
■
I
n my own experiences,
conversations with safety
professionals and examples
in news stories we see every
day, I repeatedly hear “cutting
corners” listed as a cause or a
significant contributing factor
of incidents.
Who among us hasn’t
experienced some sort of
incident caused by a person
or group of people knowingly
deciding to omit or ignore
certain guidelines or steps of a
process? The given reasons for
this can vary but commonly
include, “we were in a hurry,”
“we didn’t want to take the
time,” “I didn’t think it would
happen to me,” or other such
comments. Cutting corners
alone should never be listed as
the final root cause of an event,
but as we frequently discover
in our investigations, or many
times though the outright
admittance of those involved,
this practice definitely can play
a major role.
As I considered more on this
topic, I put the pen to paper
and let my imagination run. I
imagined a pre-task meeting
held by a supervisor who
did not necessarily have bad
intentions, but appears to have
been caught up in the rigors
of daily work. I imagined a
participant of that meeting,
Enter the
SC&RA Safety
Awards Program
Don’t let the deadline for the
SC&RA Awards program
sneak up on you. Your
company could win awards
for your safety practices and
environmental policies. And
what better way to recognize
your employees than a Crane
Operator or Million Miler
award. Forms are due by
March 25. Award categories
include Crane & Rigging
Safety; Transportation (Fleet)
Safety; Safety Improvement;
Zero Accidents; Driver of the
Year; Crane Operator Safety;
Million Miler; Environmental;
and Golden Achievement.
Download entry forms at
contest-forms. Winners are
announced at the SC&RA
Annual Conference April
22-26 in Boca Raton, FL.
Lessons in
cutting
