Safety Management

Safety Management

CASE STUDY : 1

A subcontractor had two men putting the flashing around the edges of a roof of a large building. They found a 4 by 8 piece of plywood lying loose on the roof near where they planned to work. They put their tools and materials on the plywood and spent the morning bending small sheets into shape on the plywood and then fastening them to the edge of the roof. At noon, another crew indicated they had further work to do on the roof in the section where the two men had been working. The two men carefully loaded all their equipment on the plywood and then proceeded, one in the front and other in back, to pick up the plywood and move it toward the area on which they were to work next. The worker at the front suddenly felt the board drop down, looked back, and could not see his co-worker. The latter, his view of the roof blocked by the plywood, had stepped through a hole in the roof (intended to be a skylight) and had falled 20 feet to his death on a cement floor.

Question :

1) Who was at fault?

2) How should this have been prevented?

3) Who was potentially liable for the million dollar damage suit that followed?

4) Does Osha fit into this emphasis?

CASE STUDY : 2

The Gladwin Company, a manufacturer of glassware with 1200 employees, has had the following injury record for the past three years. The earliest year is shown first. Injuries involving days away from work 44,53,47. The past year, one worker suffered permanently disfiguring burns, another lost four fingers on his right hand. Severity, which the union calculated on the old Z 16.1 basis, was 600, 1100 & 1050. The company employs a full time safety specialist and has a safety committee. There is a relatively strong union, part of a National organization. The Union and management are in the midst of somewhat bitter contract negotiations. The Union representatives in the third day of argument have introduced a demand that the union be given equal authority with management in all aspects of safety. They maintain working conditions are not safe enough and that the union should be given authority to set minimum safety standards, to stop production when these are not complied with and to corporate as an equal partner with the present safety committee in inspecting determining fault and remedy.

Question :

1) What do you think the management representatives should do?

2) Should this Union demand be granted?

3) What safety responsibilities properly fall to the worker?

4) What part should the Union play in safety?

CASE STUDY : 3

It began just before mid-night when a wheel bearing, on the 33rd car of a 106 car

freight train, overheated. The car was equipped with old style friction bearings rather than the roller bearings used on newer cars. Inadequate lubrication allowed friction, between the rotating axle and car above it, to built up until the stub of the axle broke off at a grade crossing on the outskirts of a city. The car continued to be pulled along the tracks for several miles until, at another grade crossing, the car’s dangling undersection was knocked off and the car jumped the tracks. It derailed 23 cars behind it, 11 contained propane, 4 held caustic soda, 3 styrene, 3 toluene, 2 fiberglass insulation, and 1 chlorine gas.

Question :

1) What is the relative hazardousness of the materials carried by the detailed cars? Explain your answer.

2) What is your worst case estimation of the possible consequence of the occurrence? Explain.

3) What problems do you envision for the local officials responding to the

emergency?

4) Would you attribute the cause of the derailment to a Safety Management failure? Explain.

CASE STUDY : 4

You were hired about six weeks ago as the first full time safety director for a concern manufacturing metal products and employing an average of 900 workers while the injury records are not in very good shape, it appears that the company has been experiencing between 30 and 40 injuries per year causing days away from work. You have located by inspection a number of conditions or procedures in various departments that you believe are conductive to injuries. You have pointed these out to the supervisors. Most of these people listen to you politely, but you find on return visits that generally nothing has been done to correct the situations. You have convinced the personnel manager that the company has been experiencing more than its warranted share of injuries. He has noted some injuries involving workers handicapped in same way, and two of the supervisors have suggested to him that they carefully screen out and stop hiring workers handicapped in terms of vision and hearing, or amputees or epilepties. He has told you this is one step he can undertake to reduce injuries.

Question :

1) What procedures do you think you might follow in an effort to get compliance with your suggestions for correction of unsafe physical conditions or unsafe acts in the departments?

2) What do you think of the personnel manager’s suggested step to promote safety?

3) What recommendations will you make?

4) Is any specialized safety training ever necessary beyond how to do an assigned, job properly and safely? Explain?