I appreciate this reminder of watching out for your partners in all activities. So many accidents could be prevented if someone might just have said "are you aware of _____? or watch that _____." I worked in a large coal strip mine with 400 union personnel mining and crushing 4 million tons per year. We had an ongoing accident problem that finally got turned around when our safety training revolved around watching out for the other guy. This made our own lax habits more clear to each of us because we were probably doing the same simple careless things. We went that 1st year without any lost time accidents.
I also worked in tower construction and we applied the same principles with great success. It is the little things that usually cause accidents. To overcome ego challenges it helps to remind the person that there is someone in their life that would like them to come home at the end of their shift. I have climbed Rainier and other peaks and know how in an instant everything can go wrong due to a simple oversight. We try very hard to practice these principals in our caving activities. Rob Wood Mesilla Valley Grotto On Jun 4, 2013, at 12:48 PM, Louise Power <power_lou...@hotmail.com> wrote: > The Department of the Interior employees all got this accident report this > morning. The accident involved a Park Service Ranger who died last year > during a rescue attempt. I know a lot of you are involved in rescues or at > least dangerous transits, so I hope you'll pay attention to what the Serious > Accident Investigation Team reported as the "real" cause of the death. I've > highlighted it in yellow. > > Please cave and rescue safely. Your family and friends like having you around. > > June 4, 2013 > Memorandum > To: All Employees > From: Director /s/ Jonathan B. Jarvis > Subject: Nick Hall Serious Accident Report Released > > On June 21st of last year, Park Ranger Nick Hall fell to his death during the > rescue of critically injured climbers at 13,800 ' elevation on Mount Rainier. > Nick, a 33-year-old former U.S. Marine sergeant, was in his fourth season > with the National Park Service (NPS). He was following his passion for the > outdoors, having worked in various jobs that developed his expertise as a ski > patroller, medical technician, and mountaineering and river ranger. Those who > knew Nick describe a quiet, competent leader with a strong, commanding > presence. > > The Serious Accident Investigation Team has completed its investigation and > determined Nick died because he was not anchored with fall protection during > the rescue. He lost his balance and fell while unhooking a litter from > beneath a hovering helicopter. Yet, the reason he died is far more complex. > Nick was not wearing fall protection likely because of a common human > tendency known as “normalization of risk” which is to become desensitized to > the risk around us and subconsciously accept high levels of risk as being > normal after continuously repeating the behavior without negative > consequences. > > In many recent NPS fatalities, we found the same failure in our system to > prevent employees from accepting unnecessary risk. The lesson for us all is > to make it a practice to carefully reevaluate the risks we accept as > normal—or even mundane—and to build in a margin for error, create and follow > our written procedures, and provide and use our training. Managers and > supervisors need to be watchful of the tendency of employees to “normalize” > risks and must implement robust management and supervisory controls to > prevent this from occurring in all types of field operations. We also have to > look out for one another and to get beyond the apprehension of correcting our > peers when we see them engaging or preparing to engage in behaviors that may > get them or others hurt. > > When applied, the concepts in Operational Leadership should help to prevent > these tragic accidents. We have trained 15,000 employees; now it’s time we > implement what we have learned into our daily operations. > > I encourage all of you to read and learn from the lessons included in the > Factual SAIT Report and Corrective Action Plan > _______________________________________________ > SWR mailing list > s...@caver.net > http://lists.caver.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/swr > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided free as a courtesy of CAVERNET
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