Distraction to drivers from bill boards on the roads

Today, I was driving to workplace. Enroute, while glancing at advertisements, I narrowly missed hitting a pedestrian. The lady crossing the road stopped and was looking at me, whereas I was watching billboard located at height, thereby missing the road view totally. It is mistake on my part. I also felt like there should not be any distraction to the drivers. Drivers should concentrate on the road traffic and possibly these billboards for others in the vehicles. Else, there can be accidents or near miss incidents like I had today.

Safety in stories - a medium to convey hazards in confined spaces like tunnels

Last week, I  went to my home town and read a novel during the time. In the story, enemies plant a time bomb in a tunnel right under the building where a meeting with several important personalities is in progress. The main character working in the country's premier investigating agency suspects the location and tries to reach the spot through a tunnel. These lines are also punctured to release the gas. This tunnel also has gas lines and bomb explosion at a scheduled time will lead to a gas explosion with consequences for large scale destruction.

Anywhere, when a person has to enter a confined space like the tunnel described above, oxygen and other gas levels have to be checked first and take measures. As the issue in the story is of national importance, personnel enter inside, get exposed to the gas. Still, they go ahead and one of the person in the team, an expert in bomb disposal safely makes it inactive. Though the person gets unconscious, brought out by team members, finally survives and receives a medal.

The lesson for the readers is that, persons in tunnels can risk their lives due to gas or lack of oxygen. Though, initially I thought that the author should have considered safety aspects while continuing with the story, on brighter side, those who understand the dangers faced by the characters will atleast remember the same.

Control panel alarms - Do not acknowledge or reset unless action is taken

As the title goes, with huge control panels having several parameters to monitor, it becomes routine for operators to acknowledge the error message alarms. The intention is to take note of it or taken action if required. However, with work stress, it is likely that we may forget to take action. Then next high-level alarm will come, and by this time, we would have lost some precious time. It is suggested to take necessary action where it is to be done manually and then acknowledge instead of the other way. No doubt, audio alarms, make the person mad. But, if action to be taken is forgotten, it will have wider implications. May be in such places, shift hours can be shorter than normal 8 hours or more number of qualified persons are engaged with work definition.

Everything looks fine - Are you Okay?

Do not be complacent.

Life is going fine. In this serious pandemic situation everywhere also, I am healthy. Does it mean we can ignore all measures taken till now? 

Same is the question, every manger has to ask himself about work place safety. No accidents or injuries till now does not mean that he can relax procedures and allow shopfloor personnel to work the way bypassing safety procedures. 

Actually, a sense of well being,  sometimes, induces complacency instead of motivating personnel to work better.

Initially, it starts with occasional  incidents which may not go to the notice of the manager or they are covered or ignored as one time affair. And, then the frequency increases and finally the organization will be in big soup with irreparable damages.

Let us not forget the hard work and culture created before reaching the heights and we should not have fall from that height. Instead, aim for bigger goals.Let us try to become a leader in the industry regarding safety at the work place. 

At no time we should think after an incident without injury or loss, that today, we are saved by luck. Dump the luck factor and work hard.