So let’s say you’re walking down the hall and because life is sometimes like a cartoon, you slip on a banana peel. Only you don’t fall. Your foot slides out in front of you but you regain your balance before your butt hits the floor. You quickly look around to see if anybody else saw. The coast is clear. You go back to minding your own business and you don’t report this to anybody. You didn’t even bother to pick up the banana.
A few minutes later one of your coworkers is walking down the same hallway and carrying a stack of boxes that he can barely see over. He slips on that same banana peel only he’s not as quick-footed and agile as you. He lands flat on his back, bangs his head on the hard floor, and those boxes land on top of him too. Naturally, we now have a recordable incident and have to do an incident investigation.
Who’s fault is it? The guy who left the banana there in the first place? The injured coworker for not watching where he was going? Or is it your fault for not clearing the hazard when you came across it?
It’s everybody’s fault.
Yes, the hazard should not have been there in the first place but just because you didn’t create a hazard doesn’t mean you should ignore a hazard. Sadly, there were probably a few other people who had spotted that hazard earlier but ignored it because it wasn’t their mess to clean up.
Small safety hazards like this can have huge consequences so they should be cleared up immediately by whoever spots the hazard. If it’s a large hazard that you can’t take care of yourself, it should be reported immediately to whoever has the resources to fix the problem. Let’s say now that it wasn’t a banana but an oil spill that’s too large for you to clean up immediately. Don’t leave the area without cautioning it off to prevent others from walking through and getting hurt.
Hazards need to be reported and repaired as soon as possible. If you report something to your management team, don’t just report it and forget it. Check up on the status and keep reminding your managers until the hazard has been fixed.
Don’t ignore hazards. Report near misses immediately so the hazards can be removed BEFORE somebody gets seriously injured.
A near miss is when something almost happens. You almost fell into the open manhole, or you almost got hit in the face. Something almost happened but you got lucky and it missed you. Report the near miss because the next person might not be as lucky as you. Statistically, most accidents are preceded by near misses that went unreported and it wasn’t until a serious injury happened that everybody started saying, “oh, that almost happened to me before.”
Report near misses for your safety and for your coworker’s safety.
Until Next Time – Safety First!