The Weekly Reflektion 38/2024
Most companies encourage people in their organisation to speak up when they observe actions and conditions that are not safe. There is no guarantee that anything will be done, however by not reporting, then nothing will be done. Sometimes the consequences are easy to see, and sometimes the consequences are far greater than could be imagined. One thing is certain, if someone is seriously injured or killed as a result of a failure to report then that memory will never be lost.
How often do you choose to look the other way?
Grenfell Tower in memory of the 72 people that died 14th June 2017
Don Merrel was a training manager and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) at a factory in Pocattelo in Idaho, USA. He wrote a poem to encourage his fellow workers to take responsibility for both their own safety and the safety of others. He wanted them to understand the potential consequences of not reporting actions or conditions that could lead to incidents and accidents.
I CHOSE TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY – Don Merrel
I could have saved a life that day, but I chose to look the other way.
It wasn’t that I didn’t care. I had the time, and I was there. But I didn’t want to seem a fool or argue over a safety rule.
I knew he’d done the job before. If I called it wrong, he might get sore. The chances didn’t seem that bad. I’ve done the same he knew I had.
So, I shook my head and walked on by, he knew the risks as well as I. He took the chances, I closed an eye, and with that act I let him die.
I could have saved a life that day, but I chose to look the other way. Now every time I see his wife, I’ll know I could have saved his life. The guilt is something I must bear, but it isn’t something you must share.
If you see a risk that others take, that puts their life or health at stake. The question asked or things you say could help them live another day.
If you see a risk and walk away, then hope you never have to say. I could have saved a life that day, but I chose to look the other way.
Not using safety glasses when working with hazardous chemicals, not wearing a harness at heights and crossing safety barriers, are examples of actions that are relatively easy to note and report. Similarly for conditions, for example, badly corroded pipework, holes in the grating on walkways, defective equipment. Suspicion that something is not right and failure to investigate and rectify is also an example of looking the other way. There may be good reasons a person can find to justify this failure, however once the accident happens and the consequences are known, no excuse is good enough.
The project manager in the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation asked for clarification on the fire retardance of the new cladding that was planned to be installed on Grenfell Tower as part of the refurbishment in 2015/2016. She wrote of a ‘Lakanal moment’ referring to the Lakanal House fire in 2009, where the fire spread through external cladding. Between 2012 and 2017 there had been numerous warnings about cladding not meeting the fire resistance specifications. The clarification was not followed up and the cladding turned out to be flammable, resulting in escalation of a fire that killed 72 persons.