As a former safety manager in petrochemical plants I am a strong believer that ALL injuries can be avoided with proper planning, tools, and safety equipment.
I didnt always think this way. When I began as a young carpenter building scaffolding up to as high as 600 feet, I thought sometimes accidents were just inevitable. As I gained more experience and saw accidents firsthand however, I changed my position. ALL accidents are preventable.
Most accidents occur from three reasons. The worker hasnt take the time to assess the situation and decide on the best course of action to complete the task at hand or the worker is rushing to try to beat some kind of deadline or get a task finished before quitting time. The third is not having the proper equipment or tools to complete the job safely.
Lets analyze these individually. When I worked in the petrochemical plant, workers usually worked in teams of at least two or three people. What we advised an instructed was for them to openly discuss the job at hand, the different methods to get the job done and the items needed to do the job safely. Nothing was done until they had agreed upon all of this and had acquired...