Celebrating my world

The teacher was standing in front of the class giving lectures. You talk to your friend sitting next to you. And the very next moment you are thrown out. It can even get worse if the teacher decides – You will not enter my class until your parent comes and meets me. Many safe acts are inherently punishing whereas many unsafe acts are inherently reinforcing. It is the consequence of a behavior that decides whether the occurrence of the particular behavior is increased or decreased. The consequences that drive behavior are can be summarized into the following four groups. 1)   Positive/ negative Consider the case of two bikers; one Mr. A who wears a helmet and Mr. B who does not wear a helmet. Person B is happy because he does not have to suffer from the irritation caused from the use of helmet. Mr. A but in spite of the irritation has worn the helmet. The attitude of A must be nurtured. It is not possible to reward A every time he wears a helmet. But it is possibl...

Behaviour based safety (BBS) is a widely used and still a less understood term in safety.  BBS is not just about forcing the workmen to wear the chin strip of the helmet or a stage created to give gifts to certain workers. It is much more than. BBS is a scientifically designed and people driven approach to safety. ABC of BBS    Antecedents    Behavior    Consequences Antecedents for BBS usually are the communication inputs given to the target group. It can be in any form including trainings, slogans, campaigns, signages, work instructions and procedures etc. Antecedents have a diminishing effect with time. They follow the ‘Law of diminishing returns’ (for any economist reading the article). i.e If we keep on increasing the antecedents, it will finally reach a stage wherein you will not be able to find any remarkable increment in the output in comparison to the higher levels of efforts put in. Also, the antecedents can have an effect on...

Fundamentals for Root Cause Analysis During analysis of the problem, a number of root causes will be identified. Some of the identified root causes will be within the workplace or the department wherein the problem has occurred whereas some will be outside the workplace or the department wherein the problem has occurred. Now the root causes that have been identified as not within the workplace / department should also be addressed. But as they do not lie under the jurisdiction of the workplace / department, they have less control on the same. Identifying such root  causes  may turn the investigation report into a blame game wherein one department blames the other. What will happen to image of the organization if such a report is sent to the leagal/ regulatory authorities? It may lead to feud between departments – which is not the intention of the investigation. Hence such causes are normally mentioned as contributory causes as the concerned department does not...

What was the root cause? What was the root cause? – Any top management official who pays a visit to the accident site puts forward this question. This article does not deal with the tools and techniques used for root cause analysis (RCA). This is meant to enhance your understanding and give you a clarity on the three most used phrases in accident investigation. 1.        Root cause 2.        Immediate cause 3.        Contributing cause Immediate cause is the mostly the cause that has more to do with causing the injury rather than being a reason for the accident. It can mostly be related to unplanned release of energy or of hazardous materials. To be more clear we may check the following two cases 1.        Person A slips and falls on the same level. Gets cut injury. 2.        Person B slips and falls from the...

Incidents do happen. But we should not let them repeat. Learn from your mistakes, work out a solution and be sure that the incident is not repeated. This is the main reason why we investigate incidents. Flowchart for incident investigtion The incident investigation should concentrate on finding answers to the three questions       What happened?       Why did it happen?       How to prevent repetition? The organization should have an effective system to track the implementation of corrective action which should be based upon the principle of Verify and Validate. If the system  has loop holes even after the corrective action has been implemented, the condition should be reviewed and a better corrective action will be put forward which will again go through the Verify and Validate stages until satisfactory results are achieved. Every incident investigation should hence find out at least one Root cause, and a...

The speed limit in places where I drive is 30kmph. I follow the speed limit. Should I still use a seat belt? Why do you make it mandatory to use seat belts even when the speed limit is 30kmph? Even at 30 kmph, there is going to be enough speed at which you can break the windscreen or the windscreen can break your head. It can lead to injuries eventhough not driving to fatality. Ours is a beautiful country where the cars sell only on the basis of these three things –Mileage, Price and design (Just the interior or exterior beautification thing. Not what the Germans call as design). Safety is the least priority when you buy a car. Even if you are driving at 30 kmph and the driver coming from the opposite side is also driving at 30 kmph, the combined speed of action will be 60kmph. Most of the cars you see on the roads have never cleared the crash tests conducted at 64 kmph as per euro standards or even at 58 kmph as per Indian standards. My car has an air bag; should I still...

We celebrate Road safety week every year some time in January. I have been part of road safety week celebrations too. Hence I would like to give a generalized description for all the road safety campaigns happening here as – ‘Dear driver, it is you. It is you who are the sole reason for all the accidents.’ I just felt it like a blame game. Put the blame on the uneducated driver, sit and enjoy your cup of coffee, keep discussing. Now you may point towards the accident statistics. Please tell me how many of those accidents were investigated in detail by a team that consists of a traffic design expert and a mechanical engineer? I firmly believe that too less of those accidents so investigated will point to faulty driving. You tell me that accidents cause death. I have seen it too. But is it just the accident that caused death in the last few road accidents you have heard of? Are you sure? Tell me what was the crash worthiness of the car that led to the death of the people you know. ...