Safety gone mad

[martyn williams]

Over the last few week I have visited many yards that are owned by quarries,power stations etc. It is driving me nuts.Between over zelous security men and over the top safety what is this country coming to
I am all for safety but some of this legeslation is way over the top,in fact it creates problems.I have been asked to attend a 2 hour safety course at one site,a site I have been to many times.The job took 15 mins to do What makes it worse,no one gives me a safety brief when I attend breakdowns with trains running at up to 125 mph.All I have is a DP /PTS card. I work alone,sometimes a Network rail M O M is there.
Between CPS cards and the cotton wool culture where will it end.I am glad I am not starting out in the industry.
What do you think ?
Martyn

[Jeremy Rowland]

Martyn as Quality & Health & Safety manager at the company where I work this lot drives me nuts and creates all sorts of problems
Daft as it would appear you will find that the real cause is actually from stupid insurance companies that are not interested in Health & Safety matters but just don't want to pay out if an accident happens, furthermore its all made worse by over zealous graduates who know nothing about the real world but are generally employed by very large organizations and have to look like they are earning their overpayed salary .

What really pee's me off is that all that happens in reality is that lots of box ticking and filing stupid bits of paper gets done....................... you cannot legislate human nature away!! Accidents DO and WILL happen regardless of our stupid over safety conscious country, after all what the word accident relates to is chance......... which we are sadly all subject to.
You don't set out with intention of having an accident, trouble is that when some poor sod dies in an accident their loved one's simply cannot accept it and think that some law ought to be made to prevent this from happening anymore

The majority of my time at work is now spent on mindless boring tedious paperwork for which the majority is Health & Safety based, but for all the best will in the world and best intention we still had two accidents in one week crazy isn't it!

Jeremy

[redleicester]

I'm surrounded by farmers with large machinery. Each time they spot me with the seatbelt on when driving the tractor, or wearing a helmet and ballistic trousers when chainsawing, they wet themselves laughing.... "we've always done it this way: why change now?"....

[Ian Fletcher1970]

I work for an Engineering Company making Noise Control equipment. Many of our products are large steel fabrications. It amazes me that you are allowed on the shop floor in normal shoes if you walk between the yellow lines that mark the gangways yet if you step 1 inch off them you need to wear safety shoes. If an object falls off an overhead crane does it automatically veer away from the yellow lines I think not Add into this a jobsworth Health & Safety Official and it goes some way to explain why the proud Engineering base of the UK is slowly disappearing.

Ian

[XS650]

'No win no fee' lawyers are the cause of all this arse covering.

example- our plater ex British steel apprentice trained , 35 years in the job , cuts hand using a angle grinder.
Letter from his solicitor , has he been trained in using grinder , have you documentary evidence of this training , was a method statement and risk assesment done before he started grinding etc .etc
The compensation circus begins

[Jeremy Rowland]

'No win no fee' lawyers are the cause of all this arse covering.

example- our plater ex British steel apprentice trained , 35 years in the job , cuts hand using a angle grinder.
Letter from his solicitor , has he been trained in using grinder , have you documentary evidence of this training , was a method statement and risk assesment done before he started grinding etc .etc
The compensation circus begins

Unfortunately you have to be trained in everything from wiping your own backside to doing your job if your company has no training record or risk assessment or if the risk assessment has not been communicated to the workers to whom it relates then as a company you may as well hand your ar*e on a plate to the prosecution!!
Stupid isn't it??
If you asked somebody to see how long they could hold their hand in a pretty blue flame of a gas ring they would not be stupid enough to try it, but when you have daft lawyers and legal eagles saying "you can claim" then its a different matter.
Before I worked for my present employer they had a contractor fall to his death through a roof, now that case is still going through the legal system all I can say at the minute is that there will be no prosecution for criminal purpose, however my company has already changed names legally to remove any stigma associated with the death and of course you cannot sue a company that exists on paper I am most interested to see what happens!!

Jeremy

[martyn williams]

Some of our own safety reps don't help matters,I was a rep for 15 years but took a common sence approach.These reps insisted that a green walkway be painted from the carpark to a depot in margam as a safe walking route.The width of the road is 12 foot with little or no traffic on it They then allow locomotives to be parked up in Newport with the battery switches main line side,also network rail have dumped some spare rail there.So you have to look out for trains on a bi directional line,line speed of 60mph and then clamber over lengths of rail i have submitted a hazzard form for this,but nothing has been done. When you highlight a problem,management say,"he is at it again" and then those same managers ram safety down our throats.
Martyn

[Jeremy Rowland]

Well Martyn you've really hit the nail on the head when you say the words "common sense" so sad then that we manage to miss the mark by a long way in this country .

People should also be resposible for their own action too, in fact what most employees don't realize is that when you are correctly trained to do your job and the company takes the trouble to try and do things by the book and get you trained they are not doing that for fun or for a "get out".................................... it makes YOU responsible!!

So if you are involved in a fatality at work and you have been trained correctly and have the correct and correctly maintained kit to do the job............................. then YOU can be charged under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974

The HSE are very fond of going after as many people as they can when there is a fatality and the case I mentioned above regarding my current employer, there are three companies being prosecuted; my company who employed the sub-contractor, the company who owned the premises where the fatality took place and the sub-contractor

The sad reality is that the guy who died knew what he was doing and had been involved in a similar accident years before makes you think!

Jeremy

[XS650]

Sadly there doesn't seem to any ' acceptance' these days . A local driver was involved in a fatal accident when a schoolboy stepped out from behind a bus , he was absolutely hounded by the press , solicitors and family .'Someone must be to blame'
Fortunately for him he was in a well maintained newish car and not speeding. But at his 'trial' the press headline was 'killer driver not guilty'- god forbid the poor man if his car had had the most minor of faults or being 2 miles over the speed limit.

[Jeremy Rowland]

Sadly there doesn't seem to any ' acceptance' these days . A local driver was involved in a fatal accident when a schoolboy stepped out from behind a bus , he was absolutely hounded by the press , solicitors and family .'Someone must be to blame'
Fortunately for him he was in a well maintained newish car and not speeding. But at his 'trial' the press headline was 'killer driver not guilty'- god forbid the poor man if his car had had the most minor of faults or being 2 miles over the speed limit.

Yes this is the sort of thing that makes me cross we have a real blame culture in this country and its very wrong, and what makes it worse is the fact that people get away with committing real crime............................ but heaven help you if your involved in an accident where a fatality is concerned.

Jeremy