A judge recently absolved the New York Mets of liability in a case involving a wrongful death case arising out of a tragic fall from an upper deck escalator at Shea Stadium. Beyond the legal requirements, was there anything that could have been done to prevent the tragedy? Maybe. Maybe not. But one thing is certain. A real victory for the Mets would have been if the death had never occurred.
The Mets are not alone, as other teams, universities and facility managers can attest.
Chris Miranda believes more can be done to avoid such incidents. The founder and CEO of MAC Safety (http://macsafetyconsultants.com/) suggests these entities must take into consideration their culture around safety.
There is support for his opinion.
In an article that appeared several years ago in the International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics (http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tose20), two professors at the Central Institute for Labour Protection ñ National Research Institute in Warsaw, Poland wrote that their research “confirmed the hypotheses that people who experienced accidents, dangerous situations, and are to a lesser extent are health problems had a lower level of safety culture.”
Teams and universities also face risks with regard to building stadiums. In an article entitled “Development of safety culture in the construction industry: The leadership and training roles,” the authors suggest that “studies show that an accident and injury at the worksite is often the result of workers’ behaviour and safety culture. Safety culture is more related to workers’ safety practices. An efficient safety management system ought to be based on the safety awareness that should become a culture in the construction industry involving all the parties. The efficient safety culture should be shown to the public as a good value business. Leadership is an essential part of the process of management and it is also an integral part of the social structure and culture of the organization. In addition to providing key skills and knowledge, training can be used to motivate and to modify behavior and attitudes. Safety culture is an alternative for encouraging competition at any level in order to reduce number of accidents, fatalities and injuries that involves workers and properties.”
Miranda, an industry veteran of more than 25 years, believes these entities should be more proactive around safety culture.
“There’s a gap that typically exists between upper layers of management and middle management, and middle management and the rank and file,” said Miranda. “This creates problems when it comes to proper communication about safety issues.”
To resolve this, MAC Safety has created a Culture Assessment Tool (CAT), which can score the company, thus assessing how vulnerable it is to an accident. The CAT is essentially a questionnaire that when scored will reveal a company’s “weak spot.”
The scoring is the secret sauce for MAC Safety, allowing its team to take the assessment past the run of the mill evalation that an insurance company undertake, such as “four guys were not earing their safety glasses,” according to Miranda.
The CAT will also show if there is “a disconnect” between workers at the same level, which is usually attributable to an age difference.
“The age difference can lead to a major disconnect,” said Kevin Miranda, the company’s COO. “The older workers in their sixties and seventies are safe in their own way. They look down on some of the younger workers, who are at the same level. Are these older workers imparting their real-world experience on their younger counterparts? The CAT will tell us that.”
