Safety going rediculous

[Russ]

More and more the use of "fluro" shirts / vests is being demanded by employers. Just today at woolies servo, attendant spent several minutes looking for a vest to wear, before stepping out to the pumps. When questioned by the waiting driver ( i was at the otherside pump ) attendant explained "vests" are to be worn whenever they enter a trafficeable ( spelt wrong ) area.

 

"Traffic controllers".......stop / go, folks............it's a BOOMING industry. You can be driving out whoop whoop, tractor is slashing the verges, and there's 2 stop go folks there as well. Road could be 5 mile dead straight.

 

Had me whinge.......feeling better now.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Good, I hope you also give a little thought to the dozens of roadside workers killed around Australia over the years by motorists who told police they hadn't seen them.

 

 

[SDQDI]

Had the same conversation with heaps of people Russ, common sense has gone out the window.

 

With a Fluoro shirt and a hard hard hat some people think you become invincible and they think you can legislate your way around common sense safely:surrender:

 

my pet hate is the 'roadworks' signs along with their reduced speed limits where no work has been done for months and the road is in no worse of a state than the rest of it but because they are going to do some work there (who knows when!) the signs stay up. We also have a stretch of road that has some dinged Armco (straight road but is where a culvert is) and it now has a 200 metre reduced speed limit??? There are also busy intersections there at that same spot, one at each end of the reduced speed section, but they are still in the 100k zone! So the intersections are fine but a culvert with bent Armco is a hazard?? No different to any other culvert but anyway I guess we ain't competent enough to drive that stretch of road which is in effect no different to the rest but I won't keep complaining or they might reduce the limit everywhere:no no no:

 

Hmm well I wasn't going to rant when I started to reply:blush: I will crawl back under my log now:whistling:

 

 

[storchy neil]

:loopy:wake up that's so as drug affected drivers:oops: can line you up:sorry: neil

 

 

[SDQDI]

Good, I hope you also give a little thought to the dozens of roadside workers killed around Australia over the years by motorists who told police they hadn't seen them.

Fluoro vests don't help stupidity or fatigue.

 

Scarily often when at an accident site on the highway with multiple emergency vehicles with flashing lights and dressed in our high vis gear (including high vis vests) it is not uncommon to have cars go straight past us holding our stop signs and not pull up until they get smack bang in the middle of it all apologising that they didn't see anything!!!!!

 

 

[Robbo]

The g/f (who is a cop) has lost count of how many times she has nearly been hit when doing roadside checks.

 

Just last week someone crashed the booze bus site and she had to throw herself out of the way hurting her wrist.

 

Not to mention the rubberneckers

 

 

[dazza 38]

When I worked for the previous circus, I was supposed to wear a hard hat when inside a restricted fenced area around massive ponds. These ponds are in the middle of no where, so the hard hat would only be used to protect me from over flying bird do do. I also was supposed to wear gloves when doing every manual task which was also a crock of crap.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Fluoro vests don't help stupidity or fatigue.

Scarily often when at an accident site on the highway with multiple emergency vehicles with flashing lights and dressed in our high vis gear (including high vis vests) it is not uncommon to have cars go straight past us holding our stop signs and not pull up until they get smack bang in the middle of it all apologising that they didn't see anything!!!!!

So you two just want to give up and wear your tweeds to the sites; would that help?

 

 

[nomadpete]

We just can't protect everybody from the whole spectrum of human idiots.

 

But we try anyway. It would be nice to introduce a culture of safe behavior, but everybody I talk to thinks that it doesn't apply to them.

 

 

[GAFA]

About 10 years ago at the airline I work for, one of our pilots was doing a walk around and got hit by a reversing catering truck. The pilot had all the required safety gear (vest and ear muffs), but they didn't help him. The driver said he never saw the pilot and the pilot never heard the truck due to the ear muffs.

 

 

[skeptic36]

So you two just want to give up and wear your tweeds to the sites; would that help?

Safety is good yes, but there has to be some common sense.

 

The relentless pursuit of the impossible goal of zero accidents in the workplace has cost this country so much in efficiency.

 

There was a big job done around here recently, above the door on the smoko room was a big sign "mission zero".

 

No surprise the job was seven months late to completion.

 

 

[Geoff13]

I find at the wharves I am far more visible by not wearing fluro. Get out of the truck without a vest on and 30 people are all over you before you even shut the door. My standard answer to them is well you saw me so I must be visible. Remember the machines are all Robots, so can't actually see us anyway.

 

 

[Geoff13]

We just can't protect everybody from the whole spectrum of human idiots.

But we try anyway. It would be nice to introduce a culture of safe behavior, but everybody I talk to thinks that it doesn't apply to them.

You cannot legislate against stupid.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

Last week I got up at 5am and drove for three hours. Got to roadworks and slowed down, but to 70 instead of the posted 40. The stop guy jumped out in front of me and when I had stopped he gave me a serve. He was right. I was half asleep and hadn't taken in what the sign said. He probably thought I was a real d..head but I was just zoned out. I reckon I was still driving safely, but on autopilot.

 

 

[Ultralights]

You cannot legislate against stupid.

but sadly we are strangling industries out of existence trying..

 

 

[RDavies]

but sadly we are strangling industries out of existence trying..

Yes, that certainly appears to be the case in a few industries in Australia.

 

 

[RDavies]

Safety is good yes, but there has to be some common sense.The relentless pursuit of the impossible goal of zero accidents in the workplace has cost this country so much in efficiency.

 

There was a big job done around here recently, above the door on the smoko room was a big sign "mission zero".

 

No surprise the job was seven months late to completion.

Yes, it makes it hard for Australia to compete internationally.

 

 

[Icarus]

On a construction site I am currently working on the required PPE is :

 

hard hat , safety glasses, long sleeve hi vis shirt, long pants , gloves ,fingerless is acceptable, steel capped boots.

 

They are STRICT about wearing all of it.

 

the scaffold fell on to a maternity ward a few weeks ago

 

 

[Jabiru Phil]

Last year golfing in China, we travelled coach to various courses mostly on freeways.

 

I noticed guys and gals sweeping the roads with hand brooms!

 

Through the interpreter I asked how many get killed?

 

The answer was. They are wearing high vis vests!

 

 

[bexrbetter]

I noticed guys and gals sweeping the roads with hand brooms!

 

Through the interpreter I asked how many get killed?

Not just brooms, they are mostly a special tree grown for the purpose and work great although as with everything, plastic is taking over in some cases.

 

I flash past them all the time, never seen one hit or come close to, they keep themselves aware and generally Chinese drivers are very aware, expecting anything to happen because it usually does. I maintain that Nanny rules actually deaden the mind while driving.

 

For roadworks on freeways here, usually one lane is shut down with a pre-warning "lane merge" sign and no lollipop men. They use witches hats and hundreds of them with a very long lead-in time and narrow the free lane right down, that has the effect of slowing people down by nature. Another oddity for Australians is there's usually 10 guys working and one Supervisor rather than 10 Supervisors and one worker.

 

 

[Downunder]

Industry is being strangled by safety here so much, projects are simply cancelled due to the cost.......which makes workers the fittest and healthiest......in the dole queue.

 

"Safety" has become such an "industry" and so many have jumped on the bandwagon we are legislating ourselves into a future 3rd world country.

 

 

[SDQDI]

So you two just want to give up and wear your tweeds to the sites; would that help?

I don't know the answer Turbs but it used to be that the bright lights and reflective tape on 'emergency' vehicles stood out but now every second vehicle on the road is covered with the 'required' reflective markings of industry and IMO it is at the stage of reflective saturation where we switch off to bright stuff as it is everywhere and things that should stand out are camouflaged in a flood of flouro.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Industry is being strangled by safety here so much, projects are simply cancelled due to the cost.......which makes workers the fittest and healthiest......in the dole queue."Safety" has become such an "industry" and so many have jumped on the bandwagon we are legislating ourselves into a future 3rd world country.

Hail Creek Mine has the strictest standards by a mile in the Bowen Basin, but is the most productive mine.

 

 

[DrZoos]

Safety is good when used properly...its the morons that keep taking it one or two steps further than necessary causing the problem...

 

Big employers now need efficiency officers that can go through and eliminate some of the disastrous inefficiencies brought about by WHS officers..

 

 

[turboplanner]

I don't know the answer Turbs but it used to be that the bright lights and reflective tape on 'emergency' vehicles stood out but now every second vehicle on the road is covered with the 'required' reflective markings of industry and IMO it is at the stage of reflective saturation where we switch off to bright stuff as it is everywhere and things that should stand out are camouflaged in a flood of flouro.

There is a syndrome, which we've mentioned on this site where human factors kicks in and two people will collide with each other, neither having consciously seen the other vehicle/aircraft regardless of its markings - fatigue related.

 

It would be interesting to see the actual Workcover statistics of the rate of injury and death reduction over the period where more stringent safety standards were introduced. I saw something a few years ago which indicated the reduction was very substantial.

 

Like the old seat belt arguments, most people who complain, give examples which might be true, but are very low volume exceptions.