"Worker Loses An Eye"

[JES2727]

There's plenty of aging facilities across the country with maintenance workers that tend to get complacent about certain things, but this exceeds complacency. This is a perfect example of complacency and negligence taken to the extreme, and the tragic result.

Here's an item I read in the local paper of a nearby city:
http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2011/02/08/news/doc4d50aa9fa09fb608523126.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Here's the whole story in a nutshell:
"...the worker was zapped by electric voltage when he flipped the switch to a tripped circuit breaker "
"... key workers within the WPC facility ? knew there were problems with the circuit breaker for years and that a contractor at one point wanted to condemn the system."
?They had a stick in the cabinet to flip that breaker. It was just a wooden stick,?

A wooden stick!

 

[richxtlc]

Not only is this an extreme case of complacency, but borders on criminal neglience. Someone in the maintenance management knew of this problem and chose to ignore it. The worker was totally wrong to operate the defective circuit breaker and using extraordinary means (wooden stick) to achieve it. There is no excuse for it.

 

[pfalcon]

More likely the situation is::

Management knows there are rampant safety issues but specifically avoids discussing any specifics. This allows the weaseling comment of "I didn't know about that problem."

Um, yeah. They didn't know about that specific problem.

The question that should be asked is:: Are there enough safety issues present that either the manager is incompetent to do his job or criminal by evading them? If there are a lot of safety issues you don't have to prove incompetence or criminal to get rid of him. You just have to understand that he's either/or and both are grounds for dismissal.

 

[renosteinke]

Without focusing too much on the specifics of this story - it seems that both the reporter and the various spokesmen had little idea of what they were speaking - there are a few things that need saying.

Peters ("In Search of Excellence") did a fine job of documenting how safety dramatically improved at places where accident loses were tied to managements' bonuses. I've worked plenty of places where the worker was held 'accountable,' but damn few where the supervisors were. If a line worker gets hurt, he might get fired or disciplined - but the supervisor is allowed a free pass. It's always "I had no idea Joe was doing something unsafe." Or, more common, "You just can't rely on the ignorant peasants to not hurt themselves." With this particular accident taking place in a governmental setting, you can be sure there are additional layers protecting the management.

Workmans' comp having limits? Imagine that - but no matter ... all the gold in Ft. Knox won't bring his eye back. The good news is that, apart from driving a big truck, there's not anyhting in this trade he can't do with one eye. You can assume I'm an expert on this matter! (PM me if you want my credentials). There's no reason he can't return to full employment.

Finally ... we need to remember that things DO wear out. Nothing lasts forever. Look at how much of our work involves installations that should have been upgraded decades ago! Apart from the age of the equipment, or needs change over time- and what was 'perfect' last week might be completely inappropriate today. Just think of the dilemma faced by a young couple, trying to figure out where to put the baby seat in their cute little convertible

There's an inherent danger in 'making do with what you have.' How much of a hazard depends on the degree you have to 'make do.'

 

[K8MHZ]

Just last week a person was shocked bad enough to be carried out of a factory on a stretcher (now back to work).

The company makes their un-licensed maintenance guy do electrical work. He wired up a plug wrong one day and tripped a large ground fault, shutting the entire building down. After the power came back on (POCO side GFI, I presume), he re-wired the 480 volt plug again, still wrong, only this time he shocked the operator of the welder.

My friend works there and said that so far, there has been no inspector / OSHA types there and the maint. guy is still doing electrical work.

Sadly, this type of thing is ubiquitous.

 

[iwire]

Sadly, this type of thing is ubiquitous.

http://www.osha.gov/pls/osha7/eComplaintForm.html

 

[G._S._Ohm]

The company makes their un-licensed maintenance guy do electrical work.

"ubiquitous"
Jeez, do you think OSHA could be a "captive regulatory agency?" How could such a thing happen here in America???
http://vladimirrs.amplify.com/2010/...elationship-14-dead-only-87-million-in-fines/
BTW, the newspaper code word for 'captive' is "cozy."
I don't see why they just don't call it captive, per Stigler's theory [for which he won a Nobel Prize in Economics].



A secretary was supposed to inventory what types of Integrated Circuits we had. She didn't even know what an IC was, how it looked, how to decode the many numbers stamped on its case.

We all tried to help her but she was nearly in tears.

I have to assume that the anus that tasked her with this job
reasonably knew
that she didn't know.

He should have had his teeth rearranged [by force]. What a jerk.

 

[sameguy]

A guy climb into a machine up here, (lumber manuf.) early morning to service it and a line worker came in and turned on "his" machine to start work; first guy is dead.
OSHA is looking into it, we don't know much as this is from the news here; pretty much all that was reported.

 

[petersonra]

It is rare that these kind of reports are all that accurate so I would not be reading a whole lot into what they say.