What do these numbers have in common?   41,059…..2.49 million…..230.6 billion?

Ok, your best guess. 

As a DDC-4 instructor I talk about these number in my classes.  The 41,059 are the number of fatalities in the US in 2007 from motor vehicle collisions (about 10 times the number of deaths in the whole Iraq war).  You might guess the next number.  The number of injured from motor vehicle collisions in 2007.  The third number represents the amount of insurance money paid out in 2007.  Finally, a statistic that is hard to print.  Speed is the #1 killer of people ages 1-33 is motor vehicle accidents and the #4 of people over 33.

Do these numbers open your eyes?  They do mine.  We are out there hurting and killing ourselves and others.  Yet this article will probably not change the driving habits of many or any people.  Here are a couple of other questions you might not know the answers to.

1. What is the number 1 cause of traffic collisions?
2. What is the number 1 cause of drive distraction?

Think you got it right?  You might have the first question correct, but I am guessing not the second. 

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The Bee Gees disco song “Stayin’ Alive” might help people stay alive when they get cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) — if their rescuer knows the 1977 tune.

The University of Illinois medical school studied the effect the song had on keeping time during CPR. Five weeks after practicing CPR with the song playing on an iPod, doctors at the medical school were able to hum along without the music and keep time just a little bit faster than 100 per minute, which is perfectly fine when we’re talking about chest compressions.

Stayin’ alive,
Stayin’ alive,
Ha…ah…ah…ah
(this part is exactly 100 beats per minute)
Stayin’ a-li-ive
This tip helps rescuers keep the proper rate while doing CPR. Going too slow doesn’t generate enough blood flow, and going too fast doesn’t allow the heart to fill properly between compressions. Humming along with the Bee Gees is one way to stay on track.

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During the past few months the country has focused most of its attention on our economy.   As the economy worsens certain parts of business and manufacturing are affected first.  Training and safety are part of these affected business units because they are considered non-revenue producing areas.   Safety professionals MUST (as OSHA says) be able to show how their department affects the bottom-line revenue for their company/organization.  You need to show the features and benefits of a good safety program and do it now.  If you wait too long it might be too late. 

The first step is to list every part of your safety program’s benefits and what bottom-line it produces.  The most obvious ones are the reduction in worker comp cost, increased productivity, and reduced health care cost.  Another interesting statistic is the average cost of an injury.  It is estimated (National Safety Council) between $20,000 - $25,000.  If your company operates at 5% profit margin you need and additional $625,000 in sales to break even.  This is a lot of sales for many companies.  Reducing incidents saves money that goes to the bottom-line. 

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The other night I was driving down a street and came to a large construction area where they were building a new bridge across the road.  As I looked up I saw 2 large generators suspended from the idle crane, swinging in the breeze.  This is a common practice to protect generators from being stolen.  NOT SAFE.

Recently there has been a number of crane incidents and deaths.  This has lead OSHA to propose new crane standards.  Edwin G. Foulke, Jr., assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, said “This draft rule will both protect construction employees and help prevent crane accidents by updating existing protections and requiring crane operators to be trained in the use of construction cranes.”  In March The Compliance Resource Center published an article about which includes an 8 minute crane safety video from OSHA.

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I recently attended the 20th Chicagoland Safety and Health Conference.  During the day I asked as many safety professionals as possible what was the #1 incident on their OSHA 300 log.  To a person the response was Slips, Trips and Falls (STF).  Because this is one of the most common incidents I thought it would be good to revisit an old article published on this site about 2 years ago.  I hope you find this interesting and useful.

Employees don’t just slip and fall because they are careless. Hidden risks exist at all work sites.  Slips and falls are complex events. If you focus on just one part of the problem, such as a cracked tile or slippery floor, the risk will still exist. Instead, attack the whole problem with a systems approach that analyzes your organization and pinpoints areas needing attention.
Taking Control
Same-level slips and falls are the second-leading cause of disabling workplace injuries. They cost private industry more than $5 billion in direct costs alone each year. The indirect costs for hiring and training replacement workers, increased absenteeism, and decreased productivity are estimated to be three to five times higher. But slips and falls are not unavoidable “acts of God” due to employee carelessness or bad luck. You can control them. Here’s how.Same-level slips and falls are the second-leading cause of disabling workplace injuries. They cost private industry more than $5 billion in direct costs alone each year. The indirect costs for hiring and training replacement workers, increased absenteeism, and decreased productivity are estimated to be three to five times higher. But slips and falls are not unavoidable “acts of God” due to employee carelessness or bad luck. You can control them. Here’s how.First, secure management buy-in. Employees don’t just slip and fall because they are careless. Hidden risks exist at all work sites. You can demonstrate to managers the cost and the cause of slip-related injuries with photos of potential hazards, qualified worker observations, and slipperiness measurements from work sites. Managers often don’t realize that a leading portion of their loss comes from preventable slips and falls; by illustrating the negative impact on the bottom line and the potential positive outcome from a system approach, you will get management buy-in.

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