Accidents do not take a Holiday!
The Labor Day Holiday weekend is upon us and hopefully everyone will have a safe and enjoyable weekend! For those whose weekend has not started, or perhaps may not start due to work schedules, it is imperative that your focus remain on safely completing your work activities. Numerous safety studies indicate that weekends and periods preceding vacations and holiday weekends have a higher rate of accidents, in part due to people becoming complacent in their focus as the time off approaches. Keep your focus on the task at hand, as well as the environment around you.
Most of us do not want to hear a reminder, as we always feel we are safe and it is others that will cause the problems. We deal with safety day in and day out, so another 5 minute safety briefing is just that—time to think about what I’m going to be grilling this weekend, what parties I’m going to hit, when my favorite team is playing, etc., etc. It is easy to allow your mind to drift, not only in meetings, but as you progress in your job throughout the day. The most important thing you can do for yourself, your family, and those working around you is reign in that focus to being safe throughout the day—that will help ensure you and your co-workers all get home safe to enjoy the weekend.
In the past 7-10 days, one site that I am aware of has had a pick-up truck (with driver) flip over and roll down a slope, a fusion machine get loose and shoot downslope like a laser guided missile, a generator roll down a slope, and a roll of geocomposite roll down a slope. In all of these instances, no one was seriously hurt—which may truly be an act of God considering the details: had the truck continued to roll, it (and the driver) would have ended up in a sedimentation pond; had the composite continued to roll, it would have ended up wiping out some gas vents/wells and impacting a railcar.
Each of these accidents could have been avoided, simply with better focus. Don’t let the holiday become a premature distraction! Enjoy your weekend!
