THE HUMAN ERROR
the fix), the Pinto was doomed, and production ceased. This, or perhaps Ralph Nader’s book “Unsafe at any Speed,” was likely the turning point for car Safety, because from then on, Safety did sell. My pick-up has 8 airbags in it and I suspect if they ever all went off the vehicle would be a write off just for the cost of replacing them.
So why do we tend to ignore
Safety rules made for our benefit? For example, the rule to never stand on the last two steps of a step ladder. The reason for that rule is simple — if for any reason you lose your balance, you are in for a fall. However, that rule is often broken as we tend to feel that nothing bad is going to happen to us — and in most cases it doesn’t. This in turn serves to reinforce our first decision to stand on the top of the ladder. We have just substantially increased the risk of a fall for what is likely a very small benefit. For those that think that it will
never happen to you because you always follow the rules just keep in mind YET. Perhaps it hasn’t happened to you YET but if you are human, You’re Eligible Too. You are also “your brothers’
keeper,” and bear some responsibility for others’ actions if you fail to bring unsafe actions to their attention. This is not always easy, as we often live with hazards that we have become familiar with and are able to mitigate. A less experienced employee will often try to emulate what they see being done without the knowledge on how to mitigate. During my airline years there was an employee rest/lunch room under one of the airport gate fingers. The tug baggage trains regularly passed by this room which had a door leading out to this heavy traffic passage. These baggage trains would pass by that door at a high rate of speed as
they rushed to get the baggage to their owners in the shortest time possible. We all knew to look both ways before attempting to cross this “freeway.” Because of this hazard a new cleaner was warned to “be careful.” It wasn’t long before an aircraft arrived early, and she rushed to meet the aircraft located at the far gate. She ran out the door right in front of a speeding tug. I was the guy with the red cross on my shoulder who was summoned to the scene. Her right leg was bent at a horrible angle and on cutting away the pant leg, I saw the bone protruding out below the knee. I did what I could to stop the bleeding but was unable to stop her screaming as we waited for the ambulance that seemed to take forever. That did not need to happen and should not have happened. A warning sign on the door was the first suggested fix as well as to make the baggage trains go around the finger — but that would create hazards of its own. Then there was the idea of a 5-mph speed limit under the finger. Finally, bright colored cement filled steel bollards
were installed in front of the door to provide the person protection when they first stepped out. After word of the accident, you can be very sure that everyone was “being careful” (at least for a little while). Another unnecessary accident, that
proved fatal, involved a young man who had just joined our crew. He was in his “bulletproof” phase of life and loved driving the electric cart used to haul tools. He had one speed and that was “pedal to the metal” where ever he went. We said nothing as it was his problem.
One midnight shift we had an
aircraft parked out in the “boonies” that was being serviced away from the gate. The door had been left open and during lunch it began to rain. As he was the “low man on the totem pole”, he was delegated to go and close the door. He happily took the electric cart and was never seen alive again. It seems that he approached the aircraft at high rate of speed and when he applied the brakes he skidded on the wet, oil slicked tarmac ending up under the aircraft. The first contact with the belly of the aircraft
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DOMmagazine.com | aug 2019
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