That's so sad particularly because it's so preventable. There should be lock out tag out procedures in place, and before anyone goes into the car wash they should cut off the circuit breaker to the system, and lock it out so nobody can turn it back on. There are tags and locks for this purpose at most industrial supply places. Any business that has machinery that could potentially harm someone should have procedures like this in place and train everyone in their use. The days are past when we can accept fatalities as part of doing business. It's the responsibility of every company to keep their workers safe. I hate it when I read about things like this because I know how easy it would be to prevent it. The companies who take safety seriously have far fewer accidents, trending toward zero. In fact, zero is the only acceptable number of accidents like this to have.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I have a friend who runs one, and there ARE lock/out Tag/out procedures. He has no idea how this could have happened, unless they were disregarding procedures...possible even circumventing them deliberately to save time or effort.
That's where my money is...
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Yeah, until you have to pay out on a wrongful death suit that will almost certainly be brought against them. There goes their insurance rates.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Yeah, Kwea, I thought there must be at most places. It's true that people will disregard safety rules which is why companies serious about safety also have random checks to be sure of compliance, and they fire people who are caught cheating. It's weird but you have to FORCE people to do the things that will keep them safe over a lifetime of working in a dangerous industrial job. Because people want to take short cuts just this once.
I got converted to the safety culture because I don't want any workers under me to be hurt on the job ever. I consider it my responsibility. I will tease them and say I hate cleaning blood off my pretty machinery, or that I haven't lost an electrician yet and I want to keep my perfect record or whatever, but in the end I just tell them not to do whatever it is. Not to climb over six feet without a harness or not to enter a confined space without a permit (including having a sniffer and a watcher and the whole deal). Test all circuits to be sure they're not hot even after they're locked out and tagged out. Not to weld without a fire watch and a hot work permit. Safety glasses ALL the time. Leather gloves whenever you work with your hands on something heavy or rough, hard hat whenever there's a danger of falling stuff from overhead or else climbing around in places where it's possible to bump your head. Earplugs in loud places. I know it's a pain but I've just seen too many guys with horrible injuries, missing fingers, and so on, and that's not even taking into account the ones who are dead or unable to work anymore. Those you don't see.
My old boss was deaf from working in paper mills too long. Sure the probability is small on any one day that you'll get hurt, but if you add up the probability over your whole career, that's when it gets larger, and that's when wearing protective equipment and following safety procedures every single time can really decrease the danger.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
I'm glad there are engineers like you looking out for people's safety.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
My grandpa lost a couple of men and I think it haunted him the rest of his life. I forget how it happened, exactly. Oh, I think he would have been there but he had someone sub for him. I don't think it was the case that the guy was unqualified. It just made him feel really bad.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Oh, wow, pooka, I can totally see how. I know I would feel survivor's guilt if anyone I worked with got killed.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
A neighbor borrowed my extension ladder today and I thought about this thread and warned him to check it very carefully and be sure it was in good shape and still safe and solid before he used it. That ladder is really old and I don't use it often, so I had this bad thought of my ladder malfunctioning and causing someone to get hurt.
He just returned it and he seems to be in one piece still, yay! Posted by Marek (Member # 5404) on :
What does lock/out tag/out mean? Supposedly the pallet jacks, or at least I think that is what they are called, at my work are on a lock/out tag/out system for use, but I have never had to do anything special when I wanted to move one out of my way. They seem just to be left on where you can steer them out of your way. I've personally had to mop up the blood when some one released one of them at the wrong time and hurt their hand pretty badly, so it seems like they should not be left on. Posted by DSH (Member # 741) on :
"Lock out tag out" generally refers to literally locking (with a padlock tagged with your name) the power switch(s) of machinery you will be working on/around to prevent accidental operation of the machine while you are dangerously close to it.
Can also be done to valves which control the flow of water, steam, chemicals, etc to an area in which you will be working.
I've done this many times while inspecting boiler components for an engineering company I used to work for. I generally had to lock out the power supply, water supply, and auxiliary steam supply before I was allowed in to work.
It's the only way to go when working around dangerous machinery.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
Also, you should release any stored energy in the system, which means putting things down low rather than up high where gravity can send them crashing down, venting any stored air pressure or hydraulic pressure, discharging any capacitors, and so on. Plenty of people have been hurt badly even after they turn off all energy supplies by energy that remains stored in the system they're about to work on.
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