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Key Element #6: Hazard Recognition and Control opportunities to correct failures in the system that
allowed this incident to occur. It’s preventive. The goal
Following up on the introduction of the Pre-Job Briefing is to prevent incidents. Investigating what happened and
above, identifying and mitigating hazards on the job is a why it happened can help us correct things so it doesn’t
critically important element in any safety program. happen again.
OSHA’s 1910.269 (c) requires us to do this on every
jobsite, but it is an industry ‘best practice’ in any case. Key Element #9: Program Evaluation
Recognizing hazards is a pro-active measure to confront and Measurement
them before they can harm us. This is best done
together, as a group of workers, when possible. More Effective safety programs never quite ‘arrive’. They are
eyes can see more things and some of us are better at always evolving and improving, driven by an attitude of
seeing these hazards, than others. Once identified, a ‘we can do even better.’ This means we evaluate the
range of mitigating practices is available to control that effectiveness of what we are doing in safety, routinely.
hazard: engineering controls, administrative controls and The measurements we take and the feedback we get help
finally personal protective equipment (PPE). Why is PPE us tweak the processes for better results, next time.
last? Personal protective equipment is considered by Measure what, you ask? We have two types: leading
OSHA to be our last line of defense, not our first. Frankly, indicators of safety performance and lagging indicators of
we must use them all, when we can. Multiple layers of safety performance. Leading indicator measurements
safety help keep us safe when one of the layers fails. include things like: are we orienting our new people well,
how’s our training, numbers of safety meetings, are the
Key Element #7: Education and Training pre-job briefings being conducted and documented, how
about PPE compliance – all the things we know that
Every successful safety program is active in educating when done, and done well, prevent incidents. Lagging
and training workers. Not just in technical skills and indicator measurements are things like how many and
correct work practices, but in a wide range of knowledge what type of incidents are we having, how much are they
that can be applied to their daily safety practices. This is costing, what kind of OSHA violations are we receiving,
on-going, as well. We’re all human beings and can what fines and penalties are we receiving – all the things
become complacent over time. For Safety Professionals we look at after an incident occurs. Both leading and
this is called ‘Normalization of Deviation’. Big words that lagging indicators need to be measured and reviewed, but
just remind us that our people work in high risk it’s the leading indicators we want to get good at. The
situations, every day. Over time, it’s normal for people to better we are at preventing incidents the fewer incidents
get used to that high risk and become complacent – they we’ll have that generate those lagging indicator statistics.
no longer perceive the high risk. When this happens they
let down their ‘guard’. Reoccurring safety training helps
keep safety ‘front-of-mind’ for workers, where it must be, CONCLUSION
to fight off complacency, and to stay current with best
practices in the Industry. Electric utilities have come a long way in worker safety.
However, we have more work to do. Last year 17 workers
Key Element #8: Incident Investigation and Analysis lost their lives at electric utilities in the United States.
Powerline contractors added 25 more workers to that
When things happen that shouldn’t happen and an fatality statistic. There were many more injuries, as well.
incident occurs, we need to understand what happened,
clearly, why it happened and what needs to change to That said, we are making progress in our safety programs
keep it from happening again. That requires some level and their effectiveness. The 9 Key Elements of Safety
of investigation and analysis of the incident. The word Excellence, discussed in this article can help you make
‘incident’ is broad for Safety Professionals. A ‘near miss’ further progress, if you will seriously consider implementing
or ‘near hit’ or whatever you call it, is an incident, too. and using them. I know that the families of the 42 workers
The most successful safety programs use these mentioned above would encourage us to work harder, too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ronald J. Schenk, CUSP, is the President of the Institute for Safety in Powerline
Construction (ISPC), an electric utility industry association focusing on safety and
training for lineworkers and Director of T&D PowerSkills, LLC, a Lineman training
program. Ron has conducted seminars and training sessions for Utilities and
Contractors around the U.S. and Caribbean on Safety in the Electric Utility Industry. For
more information, call 866-880-1380 or email Schenk at [email protected].

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