I know, I know. Complying with the law and preventing injury are supposed to be one and the same. But guess what? They're not. And everybody knows it. A safety director I met at a recent conference summed it up perfectly: "I'd love to be able to do some stuff that would really reduce injuries," he said to me. "Unfortunately, I'm so busy with compliance and audits right now that I just don't have the time."

Putting the Compliance Cart before the Safety Horse

The reason we have OSHA laws is to prevent injury. But the great irony is that the laws have become a distraction. We're so wrapped up in getting all the details of compliance right that we tend to overlook what should be obvious safety risks.

I mean, why is it that an experienced and certified safety professional performing a compliance audit can spot a container on the back shelf without a label during a compliance audit, but not notice that everyone - and I mean everyone - is violating an ergonomic procedure on the production floor (pulling carts instead of pushing them). Could it be that the former would constitute an OSHA violation and the latter wouldn't? If so, this is sad - especially when you consider that the number one injury at this facility of 2,650 was and is shoulder strains.

A Sad State of Affairs

How on earth did we get here? How could we ever have let anything become more important to us than preventing injury? We should be dedicated to preventing the causes of accidents - rushing, frustration, fatigue and complacency. Instead, we're spending our hours dotting "i"'s and crossing "t"'s.

Why? Perhaps it's because we've become more afraid of the lawyers and the government than the injuries or fatalities. If this is true about you, then I want to share a story with you.

Putting Compliance vs. Prevention in Perspective

I was asked to speak at a conference for logging contractors on Vancouver Island. Mark, the person who introduced me, was the operations manager from one of the major forest products companies in the area. He knew there were some owners and superintendents mixed into the audience of 300 hand-fallers. This was his introduction:

"Guys, we've had five potentially fatal close calls so far this year." [two-second pause] "I don't know if any of you have ever had to knock on the door and tell the wife of one of your employees that her husband is dead - but I have."

What he said next that really got to me. "And what I've found, or what I've found works best - is to just come right out and say `Your husband was killed in an accident today.'" [one-second pause] "But," he continued, "that's not the worst of it - having to stay there until another friend or family member comes over, that's the worst part , because they start yelling, then crying, then they hug you, then they pound your chest or try to hit you, all the while the kids are crying and screaming, she's crying and screaming. And all you can do is stand there and wait. Wait until that relative or friend gets there...it may only be 15 or 20 minutes," And he looks over the crowd. "But I guarantee you that it will be the longest 15 minutes of your life."

Mark is a big man. Big - 6 feet and about 225 pounds. Strong. And sharp as a tack. He looks at the group and says one last thing, "I don't care how tough you think you are, I don't care what you've been though on your own, you won't want to ever, ever go through that again, you will never want to spend another 15-20 minutes like that again. Ever."

Then he shakes his head, and in a low voice he says, "I've had to do it so many times, that I can't even tell you the exact number - I can just tell you what I've found is the best way to do it." Then he introduces me. I could barely talk. All I kept thinking about was "The best way I've found to do this...The best way..." He's had to do this so many times that he knows what works best.

Conclusion

Now ask yourself, if you were Mark would you be interested in compliance or injury prevention - audit scores or inattention? A moment's inattention with a forklift, chainsaw or skidder can lead to a fatality. A bad audit score doesn't seem so significant when you're on your way to a funeral. Look, I'm not saying that compliance audits aren't important. I'm just suggesting, urging, that you put them in proper perspective. Next week, I'll elaborate on how.

LAWYER-TO-ENGLISH DICTONARY

'Injunction'

By Glenn Demby

PRONOUNCED
In JUNKT' shin

HOW IT COMES UP
An "injunction" is what lawyers call a "form of relief," or one of the things one party can sue another party for in a civil lawsuit instead of or in addition to money damages.

WHAT IT MEANS
An injunction is an order by the court telling a person to refrain from engaging in a certain activity. Parties seek injunctions to prevent the damage from being done. Courts only grant injunctions - or "enjoin activities" - in certain restricted conditions where money damages won't protect the party being injured.

EXAMPLE
Your neighbor wants to cut down a beautiful oak tree on a piece of land that you think is part of your property. If he cuts the tree down you can sue him for damages if the land does in fact turn out to be your property. But that's not what you want. You want to save the tree before he cuts it down. Your course of action would be to go to court and seek an injunction barring the neighbor from cutting down the tree.

AN INVITATION

Is there a legal term you've heard but aren't quite sure what it means? Send it to glennd@bongarde.com and we'll explain it in a future SafetyXChange issue.

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