Metro admits mistakes were made when a full train was sent towards possible track fire

“Some of the most concerning things we heard on those audio files is that as a direct result of the chaotic atmosphere in the ROCC during the events of December 10, is that the use of checklists and strict adherence to procedure, what we call procedural discipline, seemed to go out the window,” he said. “And as a result, a bad situation was made worse.”

After completing an internal review, Metro said it has already taken immediate corrective actions and identified specific areas where additional training and supervisory oversight are required.

“We work in a safety culture, and we look for opportunities to improve after every incident,” said Metro spokesperson Dan Stessel. “So we are going to stay focused on what I believe we and WMSC share: the goal of having the safest Metro we can possibly deliver for our customers and employees.”

Benefits of ‘proactive approach’ to farm health and safety in 2020

Farmers can develop a positive health and safety culture within their business by using the New Year as a time to review procedures and put plans in place for any training required by employees and family members.

This is according to rural firm Strutt & Parker, who highlight that figures from the Health and Safety Executive show that in 2018/19 a total of 39 people in Britain were fatally injured in an agricultural incident.

Many more have been seriously injured or made ill by their work.

Robert Gazely, health and safety expert with Strutt & Parker, said: “The New Year is a prudent time to review the policies and procedures in place, to make sure risk assessments are up-to-date and that steps are being taken to bring about a positive health and safety culture among all workers.”

Safety Leadership: Demonstrate your personal safety ethic

One challenge leaders often have is that although they may articulate that they understand why safety is important, it can be a struggle to show that safety is authentically part of “who they are.” In other words, they have difficulty showing that it’s rooted in their personal safety ethic.

This needs to change if their organization is committed to changing its safety culture. Having a personal safety ethic means that safety is actively seen by both their leadership peers and front-line workers as a part of their agenda, and that they have the conviction to carry it out. This value for safety is perceived as transcending the traditional business culture because it has been made a priority.

So, what is a “personal safety ethic,” anyway?

A leader’s personal safety ethic is demonstrated by every action taken and not taken when it comes to safety

NTSB: Poor crew training, oversight led to tuna seiner fire On Dec. 6, 2018, the 228-foot tuna seiner Jeanette sank off Tutuila Island, a part of American Samoa, after being on fire for nearly 23 hours. The estimated damage exceeded $15 million. There was no loss of life.

The Jeanette, which was built in 1975 and owned by C & F Fishing LTD in San Diego, Calif., but home ported in America Samoa, caught fire and sank as a result of inadequate crew training and oversight, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s marine accident brief.

The Jeanette, with 18 crew members, had been fishing in the Pacific for about two weeks when the captain ended the trip and returned to Pago Pago Harbor on Nov. 22 to offload 1,330 metric tons of tuna valued at $1.75 million.

The Jeanette was a 228-foot steel hull tuna seiner built in 1975. NTSB photo. The Jeanette was a 228-foot steel hull tuna seiner built in 1975. NTSB photo.

Several senior officers left the Jeanette while it waited its turn to offload. During that time, an item on the maintenance work list called for removing wasted sections of the overhead frames on the wet deck and to weld in replacements.

Always mind your safety, govt tells civil servants

The Director General of the Lagos State Safety Commission, Lanre Mojola, has asked workers in the state civil service to always mind their safety and health at the workplace.

A statement on Wednesday said Mojola spoke at the 2019 Safety and Health Sensitisation for Civil Servants at the Adeyemi Bero Auditorium, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

The programme, with the theme, ‘Safety culture: A panacea for long life,’ was organised by the Lagos State Safety Commission.

He explained that the sensitisation was in fulfillment of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s promise to prioritise the safety and health of all residents of the state.

Majola noted that a healthy worker would put in his best and improve the output of the workforce.

Pharmacy staff are less concerned about prosecution when reporting patient safety incidents

Only 14% of pharmacy professionals are worried about criminal prosecution when reporting a patient safety incident, compared with 40% in 2016, survey results have showed.

The results of the 2019 ‘Patient safety culture survey’ of 917 pharmacy professionals, carried out by the Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Group (PSG) in April and May 2019 came after the introduction of a legal defence for dispensing errors in 2018.

The survey also showed that 22% of pharmacy professionals would not report a patient safety incident inside their organisation owing to fears of criminal prosecution. This is compared with 40% of 623 respondents saying in 2016 that they would not report a patient safety incident because of the possibility of criminal prosecution.

Kelowna fire department opens up about job-related PTSD

Gone are the days when firefighters would only put out fires.

Today, they respond to all kinds of urgent calls.

“We assist B.C. Ambulance with all kinds of medical calls, we have several specialty teams, we have a high-angle rope team, we do swift-water rescue, ice rescue, we have a hazmat (hazardous material) team, that helps the whole regional district with hazmat issues,” said Kelowna firefighter Ryan Corsi.

“We have a marine rescue boat for issues on the lake, so everything, motor vehicle accidents.”

Many of the calls are difficult, and, over time, can and do take a heavy toll on a firefighter’s mental health.

“We deal with a lot of the sadder types of calls, a lot of death, a lot of injuries, Corsi said. “Anything to do with children, it’s never a nice thing. Those are the ones … it’s usually a little quieter on the way back to the hall.”

Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is said to be prevalent among first responders.

“A recent study that came out suggested that 40 per cent of firefighters are struggling with PTSD or some kind of a stress injury,” said Troy Mamchur, union president of local 953. “And I think that number would be higher if you actually calculated those that are coping in silence.”

[Hazardous Gas Visualization Provides Actionable, Shareable Detail for Personnel] napipelines.com/how-optic…

When developing or strengthening a culture of safety in an organization, the word “culture” should bear as much emphasis as “safety.”

Without organizational dedication, safety protocols or procedures can risk seeming ancillary to the operation’s shared objective, when ultimately safety must be a core value of any operation dealing with potentially hazardous gases. Buy-in from all levels helps avoid weak links where a serious lapse in safety might occur. Safety protects not only the practitioner of safety but that employee’s coworkers and others as well.

Upstream and downstream oil and gas operations, along with power plants and other industrial facilities, should partner with technology providers that emphasize safety. For example, FLIR, designer and producer of thermal imaging cameras and sensors, is determined to be “The World’s Sixth Sense,” a goal explicitly rooted in bringing about a safer future. Organizations that work with gas that can cause injury should seek to integrate effective and efficient technologies that ensure safe operational practices. Recent advancements in Optical Gas Imaging (OGI) technology offers companies in a number of industries the opportunity to improve safety and bolster a culture of safety throughout the organization.

Volcano victims’ dignity betrayed as NZ’s no-fault system lets tour operators off the hook

While such schemes patently fail the fairness test, they also fail the economics test. No-fault schemes typically become financially unsustainable. The ACC has moved from one financial crisis to the next over the course of its nearly five decades of life. And when there is a financial crisis, it is survivors of accidents who get less.

But worst of all these schemes fail the safety test. No-fault schemes such as the ACC foster a lax safety culture. There is little accountability when preventable accidents occur. Compared with Australia, the ACC has fewer incentives or serious consequences for companies to ensure safety is prioritised. In the knowledge they cannot be sued for negligent conduct, many businesses adopt a cavalier safety approach. That approach in New Zealand has been highlighted many times during the life of the ACC.

Australia has many safety-nets of coverage for people injured who cannot pursue legal action. But taking away the right to sue for negligent conduct ignores basic psychology, and ignores compelling evidence here and in countries such as Canada and Britain. The right to bring claims for negligence creates powerful incentives for safer behaviour. Whether it’s aircraft, hospital or car safety, workplace injuries and death, or efforts to reduce asbestos and silica exposure and smoking, the exercise of common law rights in holding negligent parties to account and forcing improved standards has long been to the benefit of the wider community.

Cybersecurity: Chernobyl and its Cyber Lessons

The human factor was considered a major factor in both official reports into the accident, with much focus on an inadequate “culture of safety”—which was prevalent not only in operations but in all stages of the power plant’s lifespan, including design, engineering, construction, manufacturing and regulation.

“The accident can be said to have flowed from a deficient safety culture, not only at the Chernobyl plant, but throughout the Soviet design, operating and regulatory organizations for nuclear power that existed at that time.”

If we apply a cyber lens to the contributing factors to the accident, we can learn a lot about how to keep our organizations safe, not least by generating a culture of security. At a minimum, ask the following questions:

Are your staff trained and experienced to do the roles they are expected to do? How comfortable are your teams at running outside of normal operating conditions? How clear are your policies and procedures—are they written to be understood? Have you stood back and considered any potential design flaws in how your business operates? How compliant are you with law and regulation? Not knowing isn’t a great defense.

ICAO leaders appreciate historic contributions to African and global aviation

President Aliu also remarked on how the increasing use of drone technologies and the associated need for Unmanned Air Traffic Management Systems and Artificial intelligence in the context of emerging cybersecurity challenges was greatly increasing the complexities that agencies such as ASECNA are now confronted with, and that new and proactive approaches to human resources development would be needed.

“The airspace and aerodromes managed by ASECNA will require more and more highly trained, qualified and competent personnel in the coming years, managing many new types of aircraft and operations and at flight levels and speeds never experienced before in traditional aviation,” he noted. “And while they accomplish these significant tasks, they will also be responsible for assuring a sound safety culture and the application of the best quality management principles.”

In her remarks to the special ASECNA 60th event taking place near ICAO headquarters in Montreal, Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu further stressed that “a very high priority for civil aviation today concerns the capacity expansion needed in many States and Regions, in order to accommodate and safely manage the significant growth in air traffic being forecast.”

Chemical Safety Board proposes accident reporting rule

The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) proposes that companies report immediately and directly to the CSB accidental chemical releases sufficient to trigger an investigation.

The CSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating and finding the root cause of chemical accidents that result in a fatality, serious injury, or substantial property damages. The 1990 legislation that created the CSB required the board to create a reporting regulation, but it has never finalized one. Instead, the CSB has relied on press accounts and other incident reporting to determine which accidents it investigates.

Over the years, several federal agencies and community groups have urged the CSB to issue the reporting regulation. In 2009, the CSB issued a proposal and then dropped it due to a combination of implementation costs, lack of funding, and industry opposition, according to sources familiar with the proposal.

Several nonprofit advocacy groups, including Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Air Alliance Houston, then sued the agency. On Feb. 4, 2019, a US District Court judge ordered the board to issue the final rule within 12 months.

The proposal released by the CSB on Dec. 11 says that any incident serious enough to qualify for an investigation—such as a death or damages above $1 million—would require the company involved to file a brief report within four hours of an accidental release. The information in such reports could be changed, corrected, or updated without penalty.

CSB believes as many as 200 accidents per year could merit an investigation. However, the board, which had a budget of $12 million for fiscal 2019, takes on only a half-dozen accidents annually.

The proposal is a “missed opportunity,” says Daniel Horowitz, a former managing director of the CSB. The reports, he says, are likely to be “bare-bones,” and he urges the CSB to require companies to submit more detailed follow up information—like Contra Costa County already mandates in California—to help guide the accident assessment process. He also laments that the information would not immediately be made public and could only be accessed through Freedom of Information Act requests.

In a statement, Scott Jensen of the American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group, says, “We recognize and value the importance of keeping government officials informed of an incident at a chemical facility, and we intend on providing the CSB constructive feedback as they move forward with their rulemaking.” However, the ACC must poll its members before commenting in depth on the rule, he says.

Loopholes in OHS rule blamed for poor safety measures (http://www.kuenselonline.com/loopholes-in-ohs-rule-blamed-for-poor-safety-measures/)

The DG pointed out that even large contractors do not have safety committees, safety guidelines and safety officers because details were missing in how to implement the regulation. “There were no penalties for the defaulters because it isn’t clearly stated in the law.”

Awareness of OHS in the construction industry was limited, which according to DG Tenzin was mainly because the focus was always on construction quality, the progress of the work and the cost. “The safety culture is not picking up because there are no effective construction safety guidelines.”

Best practices

There are only a handful of companies that follow safety rules. The Construction Development Corporation Limited is one. The Vajra Builder, who was invited to share their experience at the seminar, is one of the few in the private sector.

Sharing an experience, Vajra Builder’s project engineer, Sherab Chojay said a national worker, who was working on top of a five-storied building in Paro, slipped and fell off the building. However, nothing happened as he was wearing a safety harness, he said.

[Mr. Fix-it struggling with culture change[ (https://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/mr-fix-it-struggling-with-culture-change/)

IT’S THE CULTURE of state government versus the Baker administration and the winner, by a knockout in the fifth round, is state government culture.

Think of the MBTA and the Registry of Motor Vehicles with their deeply rooted cultures of self-protection and risk avoidance.

Gov. Charlie Baker has staked a good measure of his credibility on fixing those two agencies which, unlike most state agencies, interact with a broad swath of the population in visible and critical ways.

Five years into his governorship, it is abundantly clear that the administration has seriously underestimated the task of implementing needed changes without simultaneously changing the culture of these agencies. Culture is hard to define but anyone who has worked in an organization of any size knows that culture drives the behavior of that organization and that changing that culture requires an enormous effort. At both the T and the Registry, Baker has made laudable efforts to fix longstanding problems, but those efforts, in largely ignoring the underlying cultures of those organizations, have compromised a broader public vision.

It’s not just that the shortcomings of these agencies are on public display (at the T on an almost daily basis), but in both cases recent independent reports have highlighted how the administration’s focus on certain priorities at each agency has had serious unintended consequences including, most alarmingly, for public safety.

[Repeat Of Russia’s Carrier BBQ Could Happen Here] www.forbes.com/sites/cra…

A fatal shipyard fire has ravaged Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, an obsolete ship whose many troubles are regularly mocked by naval observers. Taking pleasure in a rival’s pain is a natural thing, but this latest Russian safety debacle should be a wake-up call for America’s busy naval shipyards.

It is far easier for American observers to dismiss the Admiral Kuznetsov fire as a Russian “thing”—just another consequence of Russia’s dysfunctional safety culture. But America’s shipyard safety record isn’t something to gloat over. Back in 2012, America lost a far more valuable asset, the multi-billion dollar attack submarine USS Miami (SSN 755), because a shipyard worker, eager to leave work early, set the sub on fire.

In the U.S., things are getting worse. This year, after a spate of shipyard fires and avoidable shipyard accidents, America’s naval community needs to wake up to the fact that the Navy is primed to be the next victim of a shipyard catastrophe.

NURSES SLEEP 83 FEWER MINUTES BEFORE WORK DAYS

Researchers asked the nurses how much sleep they usually get, including naps, in the 24 hours prior to a scheduled shift, as well as how much sleep they usually get before a day off.

Researchers also asked about the quality of patient care in their workplace. They measured patient safety using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture.

Nurses reported getting, on average, just under 7 hours (414 minutes) of sleep prior to a work day and more than 8 hours (497 minutes) prior to a non-work day. Thus, the difference in sleep duration between work and non-work days was 83 minutes, or nearly an hour and a half less sleep before a work shift.

In addition, getting less sleep was associated with lower measures of patient safety and quality of care, a finding that may indicate several underlying issues.

Areva factory ill-equipped to make nuclear parts – French watchdog

PARIS, March 16 (Reuters) – Creusot Forge, a supplier of nuclear plants around the world owned by France‘s Areva , is under investigation for making substandard parts and falsifying documents.

Now, France‘s nuclear regulator says machinery at the plant, which was shut for commercial production last year, is not up to the job.

In an interview, Remy Catteau, the head of nuclear equipment at the ASN (Nuclear Safety Authority), said that an inspection of the plant late last year showed that it did not have the right equipment to produce the parts for the nuclear reactors. “Creusot Forge is at the limit of its technical capacity. The tools at its disposal are not adequate to manufacture such huge components. In such a situation, errors are made,” Catteau told Reuters by telephone.

“The inspection brought to light the fact that the safety culture in the plant is not sufficient to produce nuclear components.”

The disclosure adds to the problems of Areva, once the world‘s biggest nuclear company, which owns Creusot Forge.

(‘FAA culture needs to change,’ lawmaker asserts ahead of 737 Max hearing) [https://abc11.com/faa-culture-needs-to-change-lawmaker-asserts-ahead-of-737-max-hearing/5745815/]

In 2003, DeFazio voted against the initial bill that mandated the ODA program.

“We can certainly mandate changes in the approval process and the oversight process by the FAA,” DeFazio said. “We’re already thinking of options of changes we might make.”

The committee chairman hopes to hear firsthand from Dickson and other FAA officials on Wednesday about how the agency plans to change its culture.

“I’m hoping the FAA Administrator has some recommendations of his own,” he said.

DeFazio has also raised the alarm about the safety culture inside Boeing – specifically production pressures that might indicate the company put profit over safety.

The Unsafe Superstar At what point, if any, do needed skill sets justify safety compromises?

But there is a fly in this particular ointment. He does not like to wear safety glasses in the field, even on sites where the client has a robust safety culture. It’s not just the glasses, either. He has not yet made his 90-day probation, and you have already recorded several unsafe acts he has committed — and those are just the ones you know of. Other crew members have expressed concern, and three have said they do not want to go out into the field with him again.

You have on several occasions asked him to stop work and tell you how he can do the task more safely. His attitude was not cooperative. When you started writing him up, your boss called you into his office and told you the company really needs this guy. Then your boss said, “If you annoy him and he quits, that will cost you your job. Understood?”

So how do you resolve this dilemma? Your boss is not thinking clearly. Nobody is so important that a company can’t fire them. The new employee — superstar or not — is a liability to the firm and to himself. And now your boss is a liability, too.

Loophole limited scrutiny before deadly NYC helicopter crash

FlyNYON operated under the government’s least stringent standards “to the detriment of their customer’s safety” because it described the purpose of its flights as photography, not sightseeing, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said. … “FlyNYON has done just about everything they can to skirt safety, accountability and best practices within their industry,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat. “The helicopter company has proven time and again to be reckless, brazen and a hazard high above, and even down below.”

In addition to a standard lap belt and upper body restraint, FlyNYON provided passengers with a nylon fall-protection harness — akin to something bought at Home Depot — that could be released only by cutting a tether with a provided knife or unscrewing a carabiner at their backs, investigators said.

The board also slammed the safety culture at FlyNYON, which arranged the flight, and Liberty Helicopters, the company that FlyNYON contracted with for helicopters and pilots. FlyNYON’s CEO stressed profits over safety and remarked that pilots who complained “can’t get their snowflake feelings hurt,” according to Homendy.

In a statement, FlyNYON said safety has always been its “first priority and we have made changes to our operations to help ensure an accident like this never happens again.”

“Alarming” Safety Report Makes Case For New $$$, DeLeo Says

House Speaker Robert DeLeo on Monday evening questioned whether the $50 million for the MBTA hung up in a legislative dispute would be put toward safety as he used a damning report released on the safety culture at the transit agency as a opportunity to make his case for new revenue.

[‘Safety Is Not a Glamorous Thing’: How PG&E Regulators Failed to Stop Wildfire Crisis] (www.wsj.com/articles/…

In 2015, the California regulator overseeing PG&E Corp. opened an inquiry into whether the state’s largest utility put enough priority on safety.

Since then, a federal jury has found PG&E guilty of violating safety regulations for natural-gas pipelines and a federal judge later placed it on criminal probation. Its electrical equipment has sparked more than a fire a day on average since 2014—more than 400 last year—including wildfires that killed more than 100 people. It filed for bankruptcy

(the rest is behind a paywall, but the tone of the headline is interesting)

Fatal lack of attention to safety blamed for death of man hit by jet ski at Lake Trevallyn Dam

Fatal lack of attention to safety blamed for death of man hit by jet ski at Lake Trevallyn Dam The death of a 22-year-old Launceston man just weeks before his wedding has been described by a coroner as a tragic case illustrating “a fatal lack of attention to proper safety culture”.

Key points: Luke Rice, 22, died after being hit by a jet ski one month before he was due to be married A passer by performed CPR on Mr Rice, but he later died at Launceston General Hospital Coroner Simon Cooper is urging all jet ski riders to be licensed Luke Rice was riding his jet ski next to a friend on Lake Trevallyn Dam on January 2, 2017.

Mr Rice fell off his jet ski and was hit by another jet ski rider, Baden Apted, who was travelling in the same direction.

Mr Rice’s friend told the inquest that Mr Apted’s jet ski had hit Mr Rice’s jet ski from behind, sending him flying two to three metres through the air.

How Gen Z Will Lead Workers’ Safety in Technology

Gen Z is notorious for having grown up with constant access to the internet, social media, and smartphones. With that being said, members of Gen Z has lived a significantly different life than their Millennial and Baby Boomer counterparts. They are incredibly connected, whether that be with their teammates at work or friends across the world. Defining features of individuals who are members of Gen Z include their financial focus, their continuous welcoming of new technology, their environmental awareness, their ability to multi-task, their desire for independence, and their confident, autonomous nature.

Characteristics of a Gen Z Worker

Different generations are shaped by the environment in which they are raised. Values and characteristics become instilled in individuals over time and can be used to explain specific behaviors. Because of their incredible capacity for connectivity, Gen Z workers will likely take a leading position in implementing a positive workplace safety culture. The notable size and defining characteristics of Gen Z will likely result in these digital natives heavily influencing workplace processes and the future job market. More specifically, Gen Z’s inherent ability to leverage technology will provide fertile grounds for technological safety advancements.

Horizon Air warns about pilots’ lax safety culture

SEATTLE — Horizon Air’s head of flight operations recently warned of a a lax safety culture among the airline’s pilots and called for urgent action to prevent a serious air accident.

The Seattle Times reported that John Hornibrook, the Seattle-based airline’s president of flight operations, wrote in an internal Nov. 27 email message: “If we sit back and do nothing, we will have an accident. Nothing good can come of the trajectory we are currently on.”

The email was sent to top airline managers and pilot leaders.

The incidents Hornibrook listed ranged from pilots going over airspeed limits to aircraft approaching stalls, and also included weather-induced threats that perhaps could have been avoided.

In an interview with the newspaper, Hornibrook and Horizon president Joe Sprague said the distribution of the email should be seen as an example of Horizon’s high safety standards.

“The memo was meant to respond to the spike we saw in irregular events,” Hornibrook said. “I’m not sitting back and waiting for something bigger.”