Open borewells - fall of kids

Now a days, it is a regular phenomenon of reading / viewing the fall of innocent kids in open borewells. We also see, once a kid falls into a borewell, after it is brought into the attention by media, all agencies will come into action. For 8-10 inch borewell, a big well will be dug parallelly and a contact will be made to save the child. Proper closure of borewell, once dug, will cost a few hundred rupees. This responsibility should be squarely put on the person who digs it and after seeing so many incidents of fall of children into open borewells, it becomes necessary to even FENCE the closed borewell in a secured manner. If a borewell after drilling is not fitted with pumping arrangement immediately, then, it should not be taken up for drilling. Work should be completed in all respects and it is like playing with the lives of innocent children, IF the wells are not closed in a proper and secured manner. A lock and key arrangement should be made. If there is possibility of theft of lock, then, hand / motorised pump should be fitted immediately and the borewell should be put into use. Then only, I feel, we can avoid these recurring incidents of fall of children into thse wells.
Any person, who leaves the open borewells after drilling, should be put behind bars without bail. Then only people will realize the dangers posed by these open borewells.

Uneven floor - finger injury

A person was loading a gas cylinder on to the cylinder trolley, by rolling the cylinder in inclined position with one hand. While rolling the cylinder near the trolley, it slipped and fell on the hand. Before he could take off the hand, it fell and the person's finger came between the cylinder and the trolley. Though, the uneven surface was known to the people, not much attention was given for repairing it and this hazardous condition lead to finger injury. It is not possible always to predict what type injuries a hazard can cause. However, it is common sense to remove any hazard once it is idenfied.

If we don't respect the hazardous condition, then the hazard also will return the favour in the same manner. People spend more time and give justification for not attending the hazard rather than taking corrective action.

Tea distribution on stairs - a place for slips and falls

A friend of mine went to the fourth floor of a building for some work and while coming down, he decide to walkdown as he did not get the lift in time. When he approached first floor, he stepped on to a step down and the next thing he noticed was that he is on the floor with pain in the toe. All the packets in his hand were found lying here and there. He was taken to the hospital and a hairline crack was detected in his toe.

The reason for the fall is: spilled tea on the steps. Tea is sold to the needy at 1000 hrs and 1500 hrs. Tea drum will be kept on the first step of the floor and served to the customers. This proces also lead to spillage of some tea on the floor. After serving the tea, the person will take the tea drum back to his canteen without bothering to clean the spill.

A tea distribution point at one corner would have avoid the injury. The point is that even though the incident is known to those who take tea from the distributor, still they did not bother to find a suitable place for tea distribution. Today, they may not be victims, but the continuing situation will one-day cause these persons also to fall.

My next topics

Open borewells - fall of kids
Deaths in confined space

Borewells - Death traps

It is usual to read fall of children in the bore holes. The incidents repeat. Everybody expresses their sympathy, TV Channels cover live of the efforts by concerned authorities. They show frame by frame the sorrowful faces of parents and relatives of the victim. Then, after few days of the incident everybody forgets. Again the old footage comes in to open when a similar incident happens again. Special courts should be constituted to deliver immediate judgement to the persons who left the borewells open causing children to fall into them. Then only proper protective measures like barricading the area, providing cover with lock and key to the bore hole, etc will be taken. Though, fear works only when it is put into practice, however, such a situation may bring awareness to the persons responsible for digging borewells so that they will be rendered safe.

Road safety - during rains

The city is witnessing unusual rains now. The news bulletin in the TV says that monsoon showers are advanced by two weeks. We may hear shortly that a person fell into a open drain somewhere and was washed off. Last few years we are hearing this at one place or the other. Though the rain will be less, due to less seepage in to earth, all the rain water flows down along its graident downwards and there will be stagnated water where roads are uneven. We also do not learn from earlier incidents that were reported in news papers, TV, etc. We do same mistakes. We venture out into those pools and think that we are the most safety conscious among the lot on the road.

We go at great speeds on the road, take turns in the wrong direction, cause tense moments to others on the roads (they too cause the same). Some people normally go on left side but when it comes to a turning, they do the opposite. They take their vehicle to the extreme right (more so in blind turns) and find some one coming in the opposite direction (for him it is left). Due to water on the road, vehicles skid when brakes are applied (or brakes may also fail). Then, there are persons on the road who does not mind crossing without bother about speeding vehicles. Either the pedestrian will be hit or to save the pedestrian the rider will injure him self by applying brakes or will hit some body else on the road.

Let us remember the rains that caused havoc last year in Bengaluru and Mumbai. Persons in the cars thought they are safe and took cover in the cars. As the rain water on the road rose to dangerous levels they could not open the car doors and died of suffocation. In Hyderabad, two-three persons stepped into open drains in the water pool and were washed off.

Let us be prepared and also teach our children about road sense so that every body will be safe.

Communication - an important tool to help others to improve safety

Every day we see, hear, read and may experience accidents. But, how much time we spend on thinking about those accidents and what can be done to prevent such accidents. As we think more and more on the subject, our thoughts will be streamlined and a day will come when it becomes a part of life.

True, we need safety. But, normally we just leave it as such, as we have more important things to do (so as we assume).

Do we leave things as they were, if it is our children involved in such activities. A BIG NO. We tell a hundred times about how to proceed with a task, if it is to be done by our child. We also ensure some sort of supervision or keep watch on them.

The way we communicate with our children, we have to do it with our colleagues or partners in the work area also. BECAUSE, safety is a team work.

We may follow safety rules. But, we can't be sure of a safe work place, unless all those involved in the work also follow those safety rules.

Do not say later on that I told you so / I did but why you did not. Say it before taking up the task.

Communication should be simpler, straight, easy to understand, written and confirm it by asking questions.

If there is any doubt, get it cleared at once. You may be called Doubtfire. It doesn't matter. Because it is 'I' or 'Me' who is going to be involved in the job and even a wrong step can cause danger to others also.