Last week, I kicked off Safe and Sound Week—an Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiative—with this video message. In the video, I reminded NTSB employees that one of the things our agency does is meet with victims’ family members on perhaps on the worst day of their lives. I told my colleagues that I’d consider it the ultimate failure to ever have to sit down with any of their family members to tell them that something bad had happened to them while they were on the job at the NTSB.
Workplace safety is not included in the NTSB’s statutory mission, but it certainly is “in our lane,” just as it’s in any organization’s lane. I believe workplace safety should be built into how we think and act at the NTSB. Our agency’s Occupational Safety and Health Program team recently challenged all of us to define what safety means. My answer was, “constantly anticipating bad things that can happen and then proactively taking actions to mitigate those things so that no one gets hurt.”
That answer was based on, among other things, a particular personal experience. I remember a street crossing near my home that was adjacent to a blind curve obstructed by shrubbery. It seemed a little dangerous, but I never really thought much of it until I had to dart back to the curb to avoid being struck by a car. After that, I found another crossing point about 15 feet away that was a little safer. Why hadn’t I found that safer crossing sooner? Because I hadn’t been constantly anticipating what could happen and working to mitigate the danger.
Now, take an example of the same lack of risk assessment to a broader scale. We recently completed our investigation of an accident near DuPont, Washington, where a transit train on its inaugural revenue service run failed to slow down from 78 mph when entering a curve with a speed restriction of 30 mph. The train derailed, sending several cars plummeting to the interstate below. Three passengers were killed, and 55 people were injured—including 8 in vehicles on the road. The transit agency responsible for assessing risk on this curve had determined one mitigation prior to the derailment: implementing positive train control (PTC); however, PTC implementation was delayed, and the transit agency didn’t find another means of mitigating the risk before carrying on with the inaugural run.
Just like me crossing the street near my home, the transit agency was not constantly anticipating what could happen and taking action to mitigate the worst-case scenario. That lack of action put not only the train’s passengers at risk, but the agency’s employees, as well.
Workplace safety doesn’t fall solely on an organization’s management, though. It’s a shared responsibility between an agency and each of its employees. Ask your workplace safety experts what to look for when assessing your workplace for safety risks. In my agency, the risks vary widely from an accident scene to the office, but we strive to address all possible scenarios to keep ourselves—and each other—safe. Wherever you work, slips, trips, falls, fire hazards, and other workplace safety concerns are undoubtedly “in your lane.” It’s up to all of us to assess our workplace risk and take actions to mitigate it.
NTSB Safety Compass Blog 