Situational Awareness
Michael Schneider, Safety & Risk Management Council 2-2020
The industry has made much progress over the past few years creating safer working conditions. Today, most accidents occur from unsafe acts, not unsafe conditions. One of the challenges we all face on our projects on a daily basis is keeping our co-workers focused on the task at hand. Staying focused is dependent on our co-workers’ attention to Situational Awareness. Situational awareness is the perception of our environment as it relates to time and space. It is recognized as a critical, yet often elusive, foundation for successful decision making. Poor situational awareness has been identified as one of the primary factors in accidents attributed to human error (in other words an unsafe act).
We see evidence of this poor decision making regularly during accident investigations. Examples are co-workers using an improper tie off point. They know they are required to use fall protection, yet they still tie off to an anchor that is insufficient which can lead to serious accidents or a fatality. This is similar to sawing off the tree branch on which you are standing. We often see poor decision making in accidents involving pinch points. How often have we heard of riggers lowering a load onto their foot? One of the most potentially dangerous tasks on our jobs every day is backing up delivery and concrete trucks. What about accidents from using pry bars where our co-workers are not thinking about where the pry bar goes if it slips? Is it located where it can hit you in the mouth, or to the side of the body? It is all about proper body positioning. What about hand injuries? Just about all hand injuries are due to poor situational awareness; not being focused while using a hammer or a power tool.
It is incumbent upon all of us to be aware of our surroundings and to look out for our co-workers. If they are putting themselves in harm’s way we must bring it to their attention. Unfortunately, a lot of these thing are learned from experience. As we bring new workers into our industry, we must explain how important it is to constantly maintain situational awareness on our jobsites.