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 In
the early days of Safety Science one of the first accident prevention measures
used was engineering. If you engineered out the hazards, you could prevent death
& injuries to workers. Given the unsafe nature of early industry, this
method produced huge initial injury reductions. Methods such as machine
guarding, dead-man switches and lock-out/tag-out seemed the Magic Safety
Pill. Many deaths and injuries were avoided through this method.
However, once these initial reductions were realized, injury
rates remained fairly constant. We saw years of injury decline followed by years
of increases. And also, years of stagnant frequencies.
It became apparent that although these engineering methods
proved successful, they weren't the cure-all. Since nearly 90% of accidents are
caused by human error it became imperative that we focus on the humans who make
the errors. We have made remarkable progress in this area over the years. Safety
training, worker safety involvement and behavioral based safety methods have all
improved the nation's workplace safety.
Today we are facing a similar challenge. Government agencies
and technology manufacturers are telling us the wave of the safety future is in
technology, engineering. Is there any doubt?
Although technology will play a part in future injury
reductions, it will not be the cure-all. We must still focus on the people,
they're the ones involved in accidents.
I look at the "Modern Truck" and scratch my head.
With all of the GPS systems, crash-avoidance systems, mapping systems,
communication systems, lane tracking systems, fatigue detection systems and all
of the other technological bells and whistles, are we really improving
commercial vehicle safety? Or, are we confusing and distracting the human who
may make an error.
Moreover, with all of the investment in these technologies,
how many lives have they saved? How many injuries have they prevented? What is
the cost to benefit ratio?
Technology is cool. We all like these amazing little gadgets.
However, are all these cool toys taking our focus off of real safety measures?
This will be an interesting debate. I just hope unnecessary deaths or injuries
occur because of our infatuation with technology.
What do you think? We'd like to hear how you feel about this
issue.
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