During the investigation, the construction manager and safety coordinator concluded the injured worker was at fault, and they turned to stare at him. The worker was in pain. His lower leg, ankle and foot were in a cast; he wanted to run and hide. Unfortunately, there was no place to go and no way to get there. He was captive in a no-win situation.
Causation
There are multiple methods for discovery of cause in an injury investigation including fault tree analysis, root cause analysis, fishbone diagramming, the five whys and many other “homegrown” causation-determining tools. Often, the method doesn’t matter because leaders are looking for the infamous goat: the one named “Scape.” Leaders know injuries are caused by something and often seek to hang fault on an injured worker. It happens when an employee becomes the victim of poor leadership — leadership that fails to exercise the safety management system or the injured was simply following poorly delivered instructions.
During Construction Industry Institute (CII) research from 1993-2004, researchers found reported injuries were predominately caused by at-risk behavior on the part of leadership and/or workers. World-class project teams know how to prevent both behaviors. Construction leadership is simple; map out a plan for execution that does not include at-risk behavior.
In a 1993 electrocution case, a worker was trying to convince his foreman he knew how to perform as a journeyman when he inadvertently cut an energized high voltage electrical line and was killed instantly. The foreman was out of the area taking a smoke. So, where was the at-risk behavior? Was the electrical worker wrong in working without adequate supervision? Yes. Did the line need to be de-energized? Yes. Was it the foreman’s obligation, along with his crew, to assure the line was not live? Yes. Should the work have been suspended while the foreman was away? Maybe. Fault is shared equally between the foreman and the worker. Unfortunately, the worker made his last error attempting to perform his job, but the foreman, who denied any responsibility, is probably leading a crew today.
And the survey said …
In 2009, after another fatality where a worker performed a task without a supervisor around, I, as chairman of the Houston Area Safety Council (HASC) board of directors, conducted a non-scientific independent safety research study. Ten leading area petrochemical construction companies provided information including answers to the following: 1. What percentage of your site’s injuries did untrained supervisors cause? 2. What percentage of your perceived injuries was caused by supervision’s poor communications? 3. What percentage of your perceived injuries did unsupervised workers cause? The answers did not surprise me. The range of “injuries perceived because the injured was not properly supervised” ranged from 51-90 percent. Results were shared with the Houston Business Roundtable and the HASC. As a result of the study, a course was developed to teach and coach field leaders on the best techniques for supervising craft employees. After five years of pro-viding the course to employers, hundreds have been trained as a supervisor for the first time. It’s another successful venture in doing the right thing for an industry that needs quality leaders.
Pointing fingers
Placing blame is easy. Injured workers are often the focus. Prudent construction leaders know blame is unimportant. Prevention of future incidents is key. What needs to be fixed is safety program implementation, lack of understanding and ineffective communications. While leaders know project scope and the customer’s expectations in advance, workers usually find out what is to be done the day the task is to be accomplished. It’s not fair, not smart and not safe to do just-in-time communications to work crews. Telling ain’t teaching, and bubblehead reaction does not equate to understanding.
Point your finger, and see how many fingers point back at you. If you say, “It’s not my fault,” you may be an at-risk leader.
For more information, contact HASC Customer Relations at (281) 476-9900, Ext. 310 or visit www.hasc.com.
