Safety comes first

Back from traveling to Perth this week, and I am beat. Long days at work just aren't for me.

The last afternoon I was in our Perth office, Alvin and Neil showed me some safety videos and pictures as part of how we emphasize how important safety and Vision Zero really is. Alvin had been sent some security footage from a colleague to educate on safety issues.

I watched the video, and it made me feel nauseous. It was security footage of a warehouse in China - not ours - and five people were wheeling a scaffold made of bamboo. There was no sound, but as you watch, all of a sudden, the people just stopped. They had been walking, and then all five unanimously stopped mid-stride and went limp. A few seconds later, they all started to smoke. They had been electrocuted. The scaffold that they were wheeling had hit electrical cabling out of the camera view, but it was shocking. The safety message was to 'look up and live'. Five lives, wiped out in a matter of seconds.

Then Neil showed some more footage on safety. Our company's motto is Vision Zero - zero safety INCIDENTS (not accidents), and the owners to the CEO are very strong on that. The footage that Neil showed me was even more shocking. It was how not to unload heavy machinery from a truck. Some guys (again, not our company), decided not to use a ramp or ropes to secure the machine, and it fell back on him, completely crushing his skull. It was awful - raw vision of the site with the operator still there, before the ambulance arrived. A human body shouldn't look like that.

The photos and videos all serve to remind us that safety is all of our concern. Any fatality that occurs within our sites must be reported directly to the CEO by the site manager. The CEO attends the scene personally, and is the one who personally informs the family. If it's another country, he will fly to attend the service, and help support the family. It makes it very real that this sort of stuff could occur in any of our sites without proper safety procedures.

It made me nauseous. I felt sick the entire flight back to Melbourne. But it also makes me proud that I work for a company that strives so hard and so passionately about getting everyone home safely, every night. My previous company talked the talk, but never walked the walk. This company does, and it is embedded into everyone amongst us. Other than some dumbasses who try to shortcut safety measures.

Vision Zero. Let's hope we get there quickly, and maintain it.

By the way, for those interested, the link below will direct you to the second example. WARNING: IT IS GRAPHIC.
http://www.s10forum.com/forum/f42/how-not-to-unload-a-cat-dozer-graphic-380750/