Roller skating: The exasperating blend of proper body balance over an unstable, inertia-fueled foothold -- all while maneuvering to avoid crashing into a person, wall or object. This experience can be graceful for some and catastrophic for others. Somehow we combined the risk of three common hazards and morphed it into a national pasttime, sport and thrill. But it does not stop there. Gymnastics, skiing and bicycling are common activities in which we participate or enjoy, but which would pose a high risk in the work environment. It turns out human experiences can be fun even when they are moderately frightening.
Human nature fuels itself on seeking the next "unexpected"; if too little fear is induced, the activity is boring. If too much fear is induced, the activity becomes frightening. So, how do we embrace such an experience as a recreational activity on one hand, yet as the leading cause of workplace injury on the other?
I think we can agree the difference between roller skating and on-site injury is that the risk of a "slips, trips and falls" injury in roller skating is constantly being monitored. Skaters are alert and constantly observing their surroundings for risk, therefore enhancing the thrill while reducing injury. However, on-site workers are not so well attuned. Due to the significance of slips, trips and falls in the work area, an abhorrent amount of training, preventative procedures and other extreme measures have been taken to mitigate the risk of injury without success. Some of our roadblocks come from the diagnosis that solving these injuries is easy. Posting signs, stringing obnoxiously colored hazard tape and quickly cleaning up messes are common examples of our embraced solutions that have proven to be ineffective. This is supported by the following cringe-worthy statistics:
⢠15 percent of accidental deaths in the workplace have been from slips, trips and falls -- the second-highest cause behind motor vehicle accidents.
⢠95 million lost work days, annually, are due to slips, trips and falls.
⢠33 percent of all work injuries are from slips, trips and falls -- the single most common injury.
What gives? As human beings, we do about 90 to 95 percent of our routine actions subconsciously; we don't even think about the details of how or when we do them. We are wired to perform as many "regular" or "routine" activities without much conscious thought because our brains understand it would be exhausting to do everything under complete conscious control. If we had to consciously focus on elementary daily routines such as eating a meal or tying our shoes, our brains would shut down faster than an unwanted hair would shut down the kitchen of a restaurant.
Why is this important for us to know as we seek to prevent slips, trips and falls? Because, if we overlook a hazard in our quick, subconsciously controlled scan of our surroundings, or -- more importantly -- if a hazard has become "normal" in an accustomed atmosphere and neither raises flags nor connects us to our consciousness, we become disassociated from risk and believe we are elevated beyond a state where we can be impacted by it.
This phenomenon, "inattention blindness," is the condition where the subconscious state literally makes us blind to familiar objects for which we are not looking. Because wet floor signs are such common daily features, it becomes easy to tune them out and stop recognizing them for what they are: warnings of a nearby threat. Just because a slips, trips and falls hazard is "open and obvious" does not mean we can rely on an individual's awareness to be a factor in a risk assessment.
In the roller skating rink, those fourwheeled sneakers of anarchy laced up to our ankles present us with every opportunity to wake up in a body cast; yet, even the vulnerability of our own human nature is overshadowed by the observant limelight on injury prevention. If we take the approach of roller skating -- attentive and alert to each hazard associated with the experience -- into our workday, injury can be avoided when we put effort into corralling the weaknesses of our human nature and observing the conditions surrounding us.
For more information, contact Terry Gromes Jr. at tgromesjr@terydon.com.