safety is a mental attitude. culture plays a big part in shaping a positive approach to safety. I am working on a project in a middle eastern country. It is a huge learning to change the mind set and acceptance of the local work force and management that SAFETY PAYS. With people dying everyday from suicide bombings, traffic accidents, it is not surprise anymore to hear such response ' people die everyday, it is OK if I die'. They don't seemed to care about the ones they leave behind if it happens to them. But, really? There are also some exception. It was shared to us in a meeting Safety Moment recently that a young national worked at a concrete batching plant. He observed concrete mix 'overflowing' from a tall hopper everyday, and took the initiative to scrapped it off daily. He later left for a better job elsewhere. Some months later, he heard of a fatal accident at the batching plant. The tall hopper collapsed and unfortunately killed a worker. The cause given was no one identified the risk to bother to clean the 'overflowing ' concrete mix, and it accumulated to such an extend that it caused the hopper to become unstable and collapsed. We all have similar experience when we noticed something not quite right for the first time and felt a little concern, but after sometime, it becomes 'normal' and see it no more, until an incident happened. Safety is everyone's responsibility, a change in mind set that every little effort that we put in can help to save a life some day, will make our workplace a safer place to work. Have a safe 2014!
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