Mower safety

[Farmwithjunk]

Originally Posted by AlanB

No, we are not at the point where we run safety meetings and training. I wear several of those hats as well at my regular job so am very familiar with it. No, he was not a "Fully Trained" operator at that point.

I am not sure, I was not there for the incident, but I do not believe the operator was aware of his presence until the incident had occured.

I will say that we were fortunate she did not jerk left steer and run him over when suprised. That couple thousand pound mower would eat a person up if it grabbed hold.

I guess I can identify with how it happened.

If you two (soundguy and Jae) want to say that anyone that has an accident like that is stupid, well, I guess I would have to wear that shirt. However, you both would be pretty impressive folks if you have never had accidents and stupid moments.

And if I fired every employee that did "stupid" acts, we would not have much of an employee base (not that it is that great now).

Once upon a time, I was right there with my quick trigger to call people stupid if they did something that wasn't real bright. Then I got a little older. I saw friends, relatives, even my own self do things from time to time that I'd consider a bad move if and when I stood back and looked at it objectively. I saw people who I considered anything BUT stupid doing these things. The law of avergages catches up with us. Being fatigued catches up with us. Just plain ol' complacentcy catches up with us. That doesn't make us stupid. It just makes us human. That's no excuse for being careless, but it happens none the less.

For all I know, the guy who got his toe cut might be Forrest Gumps stupid cousin. Or he might be the second coming of Christ. Who knows. It's impossible for any of us to give a conclusive evaluation based on one report of one instance.

[6sunset6]

I just bought a new machine NH and the sales guy says to me that this gets you on the list for our next tractor safety class. He gave me a picture of the last class. A lot of old guys there. Maybe thats why they managed to get old, always willing to learn something new about safety.

[jbrumberg]

Heat, sun, fatigue, noise, probable dehydration, and not utilizing installed safety equipment are the recipe for disaster. I have not even ridden my riding mower for three weeks due some medical issues , but I would rather be able to post on TBN than mess myself up doing something stupid with machinery. By the time I get around to mowing my "lawn" I will probably have to use my rotary cutter (It will not be the first time ). Jay

[patrick_g]

In the military they say you fight like you train. Same thing holds with safety practices in working situations. You will do what you have trained yourself to do for better or worse. Don't expect someone who is NEVER required to do tasks safely to suddenly be overcome by a gust of safety consciousness before loosing a slice of toe (and then still maybe not.)

I am a pilot. There are check lists to ensure you do the right thing. In private flying there is rarely anyone watching to ensure you comply with checklists. One way to tell if you want to fly with someone is to watch him when he is unaware of being observed and see what he does to preflight the aircraft. In the spring the little tweety birds like to nest in the cooling air intakes of the aircooled engines which when obstructed by a nest will fry in flight and seize up forcing an emergency dead stick landing. Checking for these nests is a STANDARD item. All student pilots are forced to go through the checklists and must use them to pass their FAA check ride. Avoid the guy who just kicks the tires, lights the fires, and blasts off.

There are safety procedures published for just about all equipment. Much of it is good useful info not just liability reduction BS. I believe when brush hogging that it is my responsibility to lower the deck to the ground and disengage the PTO it anyone approaches within my kill radius for thrown objects. Even with safety chains I have tossed some good sized sticks and stones quite a ways with enough force to break bones.

You cannot legislate intelligence and nothing can ever be made really foolproof. Lets be sure we understand the difference between ignorance and stupidity. Ignorance can be curred with training and experience but stupidity has no cure. I try to never hire a stupid person as they are just too dangerous to be around. Ignorant persons can be trained but you do have to put out the effort or require them to conform to your SOP's or the manuals for the equipment.

If you do not place demands on people with consequences for non compliance then you are just as much at fault as the person doing things unsafely. Silence is considered to be assent. If you witness unsafe acts and do nothing you are reinforcing the behavior.

I prefer to work with people rather that have them work alone until after I have ensured I approve of their approach to tasks and determine their safety attitude is satisfactory to me.

Pat

[TrippleT]

I would say that people who don't make mistakes aren't doing much. Anyone who is human makes mistakes. Just natural. However, we should try to be safety minded and evaluate the situation as much as possible.

[Soundguy]

Originally Posted by AlanB

If you two (soundguy and Jae) want to say that anyone that has an accident like that is stupid, well, I guess I would have to wear that shirt. However, you both would be pretty impressive folks if you have never had accidents and stupid moments..

My comments specifically mentioned that person/situation. I made no broad ranging comments about anyone having an accident is stupid. However.. my comment still stands.. especially now that more info is out, and the machine operator did not know the person was approaching. IE.. he put himself in danger by approaching that machine, while it was operating ( blade engaged ).. and when the operator did not have a good view of him. Safety is as much a personal responsibility issue, as it is a public awareness issue. I think my previuos comment could be re-phrased to say that he performed a 'stupid' act. Which by itself does not doom him to stupidity. Now.. if he keeps standing on the 'track' for the 'train' to hit him.. then well.. that establishes a pattern...

Originally Posted by AlanB

And if I fired every employee that did "stupid" acts, we would not have much of an employee base (not that it is that great now).

Sadly, we don't have that option. if an employee does a sufficiently unsafe act.. .. we've actually been told by our liability ins carrier to unload the unsafe workers.... or we would be unloaded..

We can't afford to loose coverage because some goober uses a cig lighter to look down in fuel tanks... 'what if' he did that on the job.. and blew up a thousand gallon fuel truck that killed people... we can't take that liability issue lightly.

Sure.. some things get a second chance.. however some things ya got to nip in the bud... that's a fine grey line sometimes

Soundguy

[patrick_g]

Originally Posted by TrippleT

I would say that people who don't make mistakes aren't doing much. Anyone who is human makes mistakes. Just natural. However, we should try to be safety minded and evaluate the situation as much as possible.

...and reevaluate if we aren't getting the results we want or find a flaw in our procedure.

Yesterday I was working on a large built in cabinet I am making that is 44 inches tall, 12 ft long and has 9 large drawers. I was using a Senco finish nailer (air powered.) I unconsciously violated one of the safety rules while holding some pieces in place to "shoot" them with finish nails. Somehow my aim was a tad off and the wood turned the nail and it went awry. Luckily it just hit my hand a glancing blow and the bleeding stopped in a couple minutes and looks like I had a pimple, totally superficial due to random chance not because I was doing the right thing. I could have just as easily become really truly attached to my work. I still haven't found the 2 inch nail.

You can rest assured that I will try hard to avoid repeating that event, or worse.

I too am a believer in the only people who don't ever make mistakes are the ones not doing anything. The truly dangerous ones are those who repeat the same mistakes.

Pat