This article by Ray Prest was originally published in the October 2021 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.   Periodically, someone will float a proposal to remove speed limits from American highways. The critical response is predictably skeptical, with pundits suggesting that a highway without speed limits is a disaster waiting to happen, and the proposal is effectively squashed. In many ways,…

This article by Ray Prest was originally published in the October 1, 2022 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.   The transportation industry has a human factors problem. Consider this: From 2005 to 2009, the volume of fatal crashes involving large trucks or buses dropped by a third. At the time, it felt like some…

By Danny W. Smith, SMS, CIT   Distractions have become a natural part of daily life for most people. Unfortunately, they’ve also become a cause of many daily fatalities. And not just while driving—although that’s certainly what comes to mind when we think about the subject. But distractions are prevalent in most areas of our…

By Peter A. Batrowny.   Many organizations use the job safety analysis (JSA) process with varying degrees of effectiveness. Some organizations perform the process strictly as a compliance activity while others apply it to achieve desired outcomes. But the best way to achieve results is to transform the process into a personal skill that can…

By Don Wilson   The 24/7 Health & 9-5 Safety Professional I was invited to deliver the keynote address at a health and safety leadership conference on the topic of reducing serious injuries and fatalities (SIFs). The audience was made up of global health and safety leaders who represented diverse organizations from across North America…

By Rodd Wagner   Last month, Minnesota became the latest state to outlaw handling a phone while driving. The law – which joins similar prohibitions in 16 other states and the District of Columbia – was too long in coming. The new statute and those in the other jurisdictions are good laws in what they…

This article by Ray Prest was orginally published in the Winter/Spring 2019 issue of the Safety Decisions Magazine   It’s amazing to watch the safety industry collectively reexamine how we measure safety performance. Gone are the days when safety managers plug incident tallies into a spreadsheet and then try to manage things so the next…

This article by Ray Prest was orginally published in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of the Safety Decisions Magazine   It’s no secret that fatigue is a huge problem for the transportation industry. It’s the elephant in the passenger seat of every commercial truck. No one spends more time behind the wheel than transportation professionals, and…

This article by Joe Tantarelli was published in VPPPA’s Spring 2018 (Vol 5. Issue 2) issue of The Leader magazine.   My accident—we’ll call it that for lack of a better term—happened in June 1983. I was 26 years old. Maybe you can relate to me at 26: my Sundays usually bled into my Mondays…

This article by Larry Wilson originally appeared in the December 2000 issue of Safety Online.com   A noted consultant offers some tips to improve the effectiveness of observations in your behavior-based safety program. Observations are the cornerstone of a successful behavior-based safety process. Unless the observers can make good positive observations, the process will run…

By Larry Wilson   One of my favorite questions to ask at the beginning of a safety training session is, “Are you getting paid to be here?” The answer, by the way, is always yes 100% of the time. Then, I ask them if they feel additionally motivated not to die accidentally because they’re on…

This article by Larry Wilson is reprinted with permission from the July 2001 Issue Occupational Health & Safety Magazine.   Ok… so it’s a catchy title. But, can you imagine hearing them down at the maternity ward: “Push, come on push… and one more… here it comes… and… now, one more big push… and… it’s…

This article by Larry Wilson appeared in the September 2010 issue of Occupational Health & Safety Magazine, and is based on the presentation at the National ASSE and VPPPA conferences in San Antonio, Texas.   Driving home from the rec. centre last week, I saw a familiar scene starting to build on the side road…

By Larry Wilson   We all become complacent with the hazards we have to deal with on a day to day basis. We all know that complacency is a big contributing factor when it comes to people getting hurt. But just how big is it? How often is complacency—leading to mind not on task—a contributing…

By Gary A. Higbee, EMBA, CSP   How good is your safety program? Twenty years ago, I set out to answer that question by identifying five stages an organization passes through on its way to world class safety performance. I’ve seen a lot in 20 years and I’ve since refined my answer. Here’s what I…

By Kevin Cobb   Once upon a time, in the land of business, a young man set out to free the vast Kingdom from the grip of its ugly monsters. The monsters were having the time of their lives creating havoc and threatening the very existence of the kingdom itself. They had, in fact, become…