Barry had a wonderful sense of humour. What I remember him most for is his meticulous attention to detail and protocol as exhibited in this excerpt from the tribute I will pay him.

… he was a man of precision, care and exactness. Imagine this scene: in the middle of a grass field, with not a single person or other aircraft in sight on the ground or in the air, Barry, having completed the exterior aircraft check and pre-flight checklist, is now sitting in the pilot’s seat with me beside him when he opens the window and calls out in his loudest voice “clear the aircraft”. I suppose to the pilots in the room this may not seem funny, but to a non-aviation individual, this was comical. CLEAR THE AIRCRAFT!

Barry was the type of pilot who could have landed the airplane on the Hudson River (Miracle on the Hudson – gliding the plane to ditch in the Hudson River off Midtown Manhattan in 2009). Barry was the type of pilot I would have entrusted my life to.

This is the kind of trust and confidence that workers should expect from their employers and supervisors. They are the ‘pilots’ of a business with the responsibility to guide their workers to a ‘safe landing’. This responsibility must never simply be given to an individual because of seniority; this responsibility is a learned position that brings with it accountability, obligation, knowledge and duty. The Occupational Health and Safety Act has specific requirements and defines a supervisor as “a person who has charge of a workplace or authority over a worker”. With the high expectations and legal responsibilities that come with the supervisory position, supervisors must be equipped to carry out their roles to meet Ministry of labour guidelines competently. OHSA S. 27 (1)(2)

One of the first things a Ministry inspector will ask for when conducting a surprise inspection is documentation that a Supervisor has received training to competently carry out their duties. Do they understand the role of the Internal Responsibility System (IRS); do they know how to navigate the Green Book (OHSA and regulations); do they adhere to and enforce the company’s health and safety policies and procedures; do they know how to identify and manage hazards; are they able to conduct an accident investigation and, very importantly, do they have the skills to communicate with employees to keep them safe?

Becoming a competent supervisor does not just happen, it is a learned skill and position that carries with it legal responsibilities that, if not met, can lead to fines from the Ministry, especially in the case of an incident or accident where training cannot be proven with proper training records.

May all workers have a Barry in their lives whom they can trust to keep them safe from harm in the workplace.

Watch for next month’s Blog published in the second week of July

Sincerely,

Carola Mittag

Consultant and Editor for Mentor Safety Consultants Inc.

The post CLEAR THE AIRCRAFT! appeared first on Mentor Safety Consultants - A Safety Co Partner.

Having gone to university, held a professional job for many years and am now happily retired, I still have to do my regular grocery shopping. I shop at a grocery store that has its buggies chained together. To release one of these shopping carts it is necessary to insert a quarter into a slot on the buggy; then, when your shopping is done, you can retrieve your quarter by retuning the buggy to the chained carts. I find it amazing that, no matter the weather, rain, sleet, hail or snow, people conscientiously return their cart to get back their twenty-five cents. Very, very rarely will you see an abandoned cart in the grocery store’s parking lot.

Today, even though a quarter has little buying power, people go to great lengths to get back their coin. I wonder if they ever think back to the times that they just walked by a penny, nickel or dime.

What has all this got to do with health and safety? I thought about a saying that is as old as the hills “The devil is in the details.” Those who return their carts to retrieve their quarters are paying attention to a little, seemingly, inconsequential detail; after all it’s only twenty-five cents.

“It will only take a second”; I’ve always done it this way”; Only this once”; It won’t happen to me”; What can go wrong?”; “But they did it like that”; “It’s only …….”.

How many times have we heard someone say any of these things or thought and said them ourselves? Whether it is workers following written safety procedures, or supervisors conducting site inspections, or JHSC members conducting an accident investigation, the devil is in the details! It sounds like an ominous warning, doesn’t it? But in fact, it is an expression used to point out that one should pay attention to all they do. Even the grandest project depends on the success of the smallest components. It may be the tiniest detail that, if not paid close attention to, could possibly ruin all your efforts not to mention cause injury, illness or even death. It is important to identify the details to avoid tragic consequences.

Safety audits are used to identify weaknesses in safety programs and processes in order to identify corrective actions that must be taken. Safety audits also identify whether or not a company is in compliance with the appropriate safety regulations. MENTOR’s safety audit is a structured process that is used to collect information relating to your company’s efficiency, effectiveness, and reliability. This type of inspection is more thorough than technical inspections or spot-check inspections, as it also involves reviewing your company’s safety documentation in order to determine how the company can improve its total health and safety management system.

People choose their actions, some in great detail and some lackadaisically. The consequences of those choices can mean the difference between a happy healthy future or one with lasting negative implications. Paying attention to details is never time wasted!

Watch for next month’s Blog published in the second week of June.

Sincerely,

Carola Mittag

Consultant and Editor for Mentor Safety Consultants Inc.

The post THE TWENTY-FIVE CENT DRIVER appeared first on Mentor Safety Consultants - A Safety Co Partner.

On these walks I regularly see roofers at work. All too often the workers are young, students perhaps or those with minimal education and doing a job that is both hard and hard on the body. Naturally I wonder what kind of training they’ve been given. How often I shudder when I see them working without the personal protective equipment needed for the job. Worse still are the workers who are wearing their safety harnesses, however, attached to nothing. Usually, the ropes and lanyards are lying on the roof.

Three hazards in one:

1. The workers are wearing harnesses that hamper them but aren’t doing the job for which they are intended because they’re not attached to a lifeline.
2. The ropes and lanyards just lying on the roof are a tripping hazard.
3. Worker lack of understanding of the purpose of the PPE and frustration, maybe even anger that the equipment is more of a bother than a help.

Then I look at the vehicles that these workers have arrived in. In most cases, and this is not precise research, but an observation over years, these vehicles do not identify the roofing company. That tells me that the owners do not take pride in their company, do not want to be identified by showing their name on their vehicles and are avoiding possibly being reported to the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) by passersby.

Twice this summer I confronted onsite workers asking why they weren’t wearing their lifelines. In the first instance it was actually the owner/supervisor who told me that they would attach once the shingle packs had been offloaded the lifting device. The building being re-shingled was a three-story commercial establishment with a steep pitch. The workers had their harnesses on and were carrying the heavy shingle packs up the incline while having to step over the lifelines laying on the roof. I walked away and when I passed later in the day, not one of the workers was attached to a lifeline but hey, they had their harnesses on. Yes, I called the MLITSD.

I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that the workers had working at heights training to satisfy Ministry requirements; however, the supervisors did not have the training to know what their personal liability was in the event of a tragic accident.

It’s all about knowing the facts, having responsible owners who value their employees and provide the right training, equipment and supervision. Those are the employers who proudly display their logos and brands on their vehicles. Those are the employers potential workers should be looking for to keep them healthy and safe.

If you’re not comfortable with it, DON’T DO IT!

Watch for next month’s Blog published in the first week of November.

Sincerely,

Carola Mittag

Consultant and Editor for Mentor Safety Consultants Inc.

The post JUST WALKING BY appeared first on Mentor Safety Consultants - A Safety Co Partner.

This is because you have two eyes that observe the world from two different positions. It’s a matter of parallax. (If you do this with a little kid you’ll appear like a magician to them.)

The parallax aspect is useful in comparing points of view and one’s place in a given situation. Parallax arises due to change in viewpoint occurring due to motion of the observer, of the observed, or of both.

Long ago, an ancient Chinese sage expressed parallax this way:

You can’t talk about the ocean with a frog who lives in a well. He is bounded by the space he inhabits.

You can’t talk about ice with an insect who is born and dies in June. He is bounded by a single season.

You can’t talk about the meaning of life with a person who is certain he knows everything there is to know. He is bounded by his own beliefs.

I can understand another person’s point of view even though it differs from mine. Why? Each individual sees something from a different perspective.

I can understand another person’s point of view even though it differs from mine. Why? Each individual sees something from a different perspective.

Last month I wrote about finding a root cause for an incident or accident to prevent a possible recurrence with a potentially tragic outcome. This month I want to focus on the importance of interviewing witnesses to an incident or accident as part of thorough investigations.

Whenever I taught an accident investigation course I went through a very simple exercise with the class. Standing in front of the participants, I let a pencil fall to the floor. Then I asked one person to my right to describe what he/she saw. They may have said that they saw my hip hit the desk which caused the pencil to roll off. Then I asked a person to my left to describe what they saw. They may have said that my hand brushed the pencil causing it to fall to the floor. The person on the other side may not have seen this because my torso blocked their view. The person directly in front of me saw me throw the pencil to the floor. It’s all a matter of perspective.

The whole point of the exercise was to demonstrate that it is important to interview multiple witnesses with varying perspectives and information relevant to the incident.

“the facts ma’am, just the facts”

1. Interview witnesses separately, so that their recall is their own and not influenced by another person’s observation which may cause the first person to change their report.
2. Each witness saw the incident from a different viewpoint depending on where they were standing when the incident happened. Note – even though the witness report should strictly detail factual observation, individuals may “colour” their report based on personal experiences, knowledge, opinions and attitudes.
3. Interviews, to gather testimonial evidence, should be conducted as soon as possible after an incident to ensure accuracy of memory (memories fade over time).

Witnesses may be anyone with information relevant to the incident/accident including:

• People directly involved
• Supervisors
• Others at the workplace
• External people such as material experts

Effective witness interviews require patience to:

• Focus on preventing future accidents (not on blame),
• Ensure everyone involved is aware of the investigation and the need for confidentiality,
• Respect the needs of persons interviewed and preparation.

Written, testimonial witness evidence is generally admissible in court; whereas, oral testimony or hearsay, a statement about what a witness heard someone else say, is not admissible in court.

Witness evidence is critical to establishing a root cause for an incident or accident. It is up to the interviewer to direct the witnesses to stick to “the facts, ma’am, just the facts!”

While parallax may sound like the name of some prehistoric creature, it is in fact a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight. A trained investigative interviewer will want to gather witness evidence from all lines of sight.

While checking the location of my index finger against the twelve on the clock on the far wall, the big hand just jumped an hour. LUNCHTIME!

Watch for next month’s Blog published in the first week of June.

Sincerely,

Carola Mittag

Consultant and Editor for Mentor Safety Consultants Inc.

The post PARALLAX appeared first on Mentor Safety Consultants - A Safety Co Partner.