Uncovering the Indicators that Lead to Disaster

One of the hardest things safety professionals, managers, front line supervisors and design engineers have to do is after an incident or accident has taken place. Discovering the key indicators on how highly skilled, trained, competent and qualified workers managed to get themselves hurt is both excruciatingly painful and time critical. Ensuring a similar incident cannot occur is essential. If US OSHA conclusions are true, that approximately 80% of all accidents happen due to something a worker did or failed to do, there must be equal or greater attention given to the preparation of every job task as there is during its performance. Every element of a task has varying importance. In the appropriate balance these elements can provide the greatest level of assurance that qualified workers can safely perform required assigned tasks. This paper will list key indicators in both company documented directions and worker's implementation filtered through their skills of the trade, knowledge of the task and rules guiding their action.