Cowboy Safety

Nothing has changed in a hundred years

Dr Lucian W Chaney, Department of Commerce and Labor October 1, 1912

We know the class of labor that we have in our mines today is very much below what it was some years ago, and it is getting worse. Many of the men are ignorant of our language. They do not understand orders given to them. Many of them do not want to understand them. They say: “No sabe,” but they do “sabe.” The point of it is they don’t want to “sabe.” Nevertheless, the majority of our accidents have been through carelessness. We find, in going over our statistics, that the men who are hurt in our mines are not the new men, the ignorant men, they are the careless hardened men, who have become inured to danger.

They say: “I have done it a thousand times, I will do it again.” That old last car of coal, as I say that damnable last car of coal, has killed more men than any one thing. A man goes in and taps the roof and knows it is bad. He doesn’t want to take the time to go out and put a prop under it to protect himself, and the roof falls and kills him. The company is blamed for it. They are not to blame for it, it is the carelessness of that individual man.

A lesson for all in oil-worker deaths

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics at least 598 oil-workers died on the job between 2002 and 2007. There has been an increase in the number of workers but the fatality rate - that is the number of workers killed relative to the number of workers - has also risen. This has all happened even though the amount of money spent on safety, which includes a  lot of training, has increased. Several things have been noted that could be true in any business: 

New workers

High pressure environment where safety lapses are common

Increasing drug and alcohol use

12-hour shifts

14 days in a row of work

Problems with Traditional Industrial Age Safety

Analyzes processes and deals with each process independently.

Often ignores the obvious.

Measurement is after the fact.

Assumes workers are tied to one job.

Is not site-specific or time-specific.

Works with audits that are based on regulations.

Is driven by fear.

No room for creativity.

Institutionalizes the worst ideas.

Does not deal with differing cultures.

Does not deal with generational differences.

Does not deal with real causes.