by Terry McSween, Ph.D.
In a previous article I shared the data collected from a group of 35 construction and maintenance contractors that had active behavior-based safety peer observation processes. In a session on common problems with behavioral observations, I used an audience response system to quantify the issues that participants were having with behavioral safety observations.
In 1998, the Thunder Creek Gas Services, LLC Company was established with just over a handful of employees as a joint venture to build a gathering and transportation system for natural gas in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. Since that time, the enterprise has grown into a successful organization of currently almost 40 employees with locations in Gillette and Douglas, Wyoming, and Denver, Colorado.
Sometimes, a very safe workplace can hold hidden dangers. That’s what became apparent at the Embraco North America (ENA) facility in Suwanee, Georgia. In operation since 1991, this sales, R&D, and distribution center for Embraco—a world leader in the manufacture of refrigeration compressors— enjoyed a perfect safety record until an unusual, but preventable event occurred.
“Many years ago a forklift operator drove off of a loading dock while unloading trucks. As the truck was pulling away from the dock, the forklift operator, who had been unloading the truck, did not feel the truck leaving the dock because he was also moving. He was driving back to the dock but the truck had already pulled away, so he fell between the truck and the dock,” explains Terrence Burks, warehouse supervisor. Fortunately, the forklift operator survived, but suffered serious injury.
Incidents can happen even in safe workplaces, because human behavior is unpredictable. That was certainly the case when a warehouse employee of the Suwanee, Georgia, location of Embraco North America (ENA), a sales, R&D, and distribution center for Embraco—a world leader in the manufacture of refrigeration compressors—was unlucky enough to be involved in a frightening situation. “We had an employee who was wrapping a pallet.