When I was young, the newspaper reported that my home town fire department was getting a new fire engine. As part of a safety trend back then, they decided to get this new fire truck in fluorescent green instead of the traditional red. They thought the new color would be easier to see, thus helping with community safety. Sometime later (months or years, I can’t remember) they said they were doing away with the new paint scheme because people didn’t think “fire engine” unless the fire engine was red. I’ll admit that as I think about it today, if I saw green and flashing lights, I’d have to stop and think things through.

Sometimes there is time to make changes safely with education. In other situations, (especially if the public is involved) we need to consider how others react during a split-second reaction and if there is still time to…

Be Safe!

Keith Steele

There was a time when I had to use a smart card (with an imbedded chip) and enter a password in order to use the computers at work.  As part of the network security, there were limits on how many times I could enter the wrong password before the card would be “locked” and I’d have to jump through bureaucratic hoops before I could use a computer again.  Since I’ve got many passwords, a bad memory and some paralysis in my right hand, I was prone to fat-fingering my password.  One day I saw a warning that I was only two more wrong entries before I’d be locked out.  After that, I always took it slow and somehow went about three weeks or more without another warning.

Here’s the safety tie-in.  When we know that something could go wrong, we take extra precautions to reduce the chance for accidents.  Unfortunately, we don’t always have that warning – or sometimes ignore them.  That’s why we should always be prepared for something to go wrong.  We need to always take the time necessary to…

Be Safe!

Keith Steele

Last night I visited a manufacturing plant with a reserved parking spot for “safety employee of the month.” I asked a plant employees about that benefit, and learned this. The safety parking spot is for an employee who performs a “safety act.” (Sorry, that’s the best phrase I can think of.) This act is more than wiping up a wet spot. To earn that parking space, the employee needs to identify a problem, document and implement the solution, and communicate the information to the appropriate office.

The more I think about this, the more genius I see in the program. It creates a culture where following procedures is encouraged, where communication is strengthened, and gives employees an incentive to…

Be Safe!

Keith Steele