Re: Safety Issues

I don't think it's a common sense issue or even poor judgement issue on the face of it, as it's usually more what NASA used to refer to as, "Go fever," where you're pressed to finish a task no matter what. In such a case, if you take every single precaution it might not happen (or at least not in the timeframe your boss demands), so you don't even stop to think what might happen if you cut the corner(s). You don't see any alternative at a moment like that.
The military is especially guilty of this, and I saw it all the time. A good example was my Battalion had a bunch of refueling tankers and the crews ran at night for a gunnery exercise. Problem was, the leaders will always see soldiers sleeping and have the mindset of, "well, I'm up, so they should be, too," but never mind that they'd literally been up all night. So, the poor crews would be screamed at to get up and do... something, and those above them couldn't get through to the powers that be that people gotta sleep sometime. "Don't tell me your problems, LT," I heard a Major scream at their Platoon Leader, "Just make it happen and I do not wanna see any of your people slacking off again!"
Slacking off. This from an O-3 who got a full night's sleep while these people were working hard.
So, you can imagine what happened next. After four days of not sleeping (in violation of a bunch of regulations, which the Platoon leader tried to explain but with no support form his Company Commander who didn't wanna look bad to the Battalion), a fully loaded tanker went into a ditch with a crew who were all out like lights. Thnakfully, the crew only suffered bumps and bruises.
I wasn't there to see it, but I heard a bunch of folks at Battalion level (and the Company Commander) had their careers were killed on the spot. I talked with their Platoon Leader months later and he said he'd expected to be relieved of command as well but he'd 'dodged the bullet' once saner heads (conducting an official line of duty investigation) looked the whole thing over and found out he'd argued for getting his crews sleep to anyone he could and was overridden at every turn.
My point? Imagine telling the person in charge of the railroad that day that your steam engine is leaking somewhere and you need to go fire up the diesel instead. How many times has said steam engine gone out anyway, to "make it happen," in the name of making it look good?


Mark Petersen Wrote:
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> One thing that constantly comes up is people’s
> perception of the risk involved. Richard Feynman
> talks about this in his book that covered his
> investigation of the Challenger disaster.
> [url=https://www.amazon.com/What-Care-Other-People
> -Think/dp/0393320928/ref=nodl_]What Do You Care
> What Other People Think?[/url]
>
> It’s shown often people are very poor at judging
> risk. Obsessing over low risk events and ignoring
> high risk ones. Worse yet when to something they
> encounter daily such as working in a rail yard
> with moving equipment. Drop your attention
> momentarily and your dead. Every single railroad
> employee understands this very well, yet
> fatalities still occur. Safety seems like it’s
> Common Sense, but some days it’s in very short
> supply.

[b]-Lee[/b]

[url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/53587910@N05/sets/72157668176638961]Flickr photo set of my On30 layout[/url]