Simon

Cumbria

IT

Spot on !

There is one aspect you failed to mention though - the risk avoidance strategy that underpins the whole problem.

Take a real example, I'm a private pilot and find that more and more airfields implement a blanket "hi vis when airside" rule. No if, buts, or discussions of risk - that's the rule. Never mind that I have yet to find out about just ONE accident cause by an aircraft hitting someone because of lack of visibility. NOT ONE, ever, anywhere around the world - or at least not one that anyone has been able to tell me about.

I claim no originality for describing this as the South Sea Islands Syndrome. When the US set up a base in the South Sea islands, the natives saw that men came and cut down trees, put up a tower building, and gabbled into a microphone. In response, big silver birds arrived and left goodies like sweets and cigarettes. When the war was over, the US shut up and went home, the tower decayed and the trees grew again on the runway. The Islanders figured that it was the trees that put off the big silver birds, so they cleared the trees, built a new tower, made a wooden microphone - but the bird didn't come.

What was wrong ? They didn't understand the process - they see the actions and the results, but not the process. They simply replicated the actions in complete ignorance - and it's the same in many business areas. Managers see what other people do - in the context of the article, they see that places with hi-vis etc rules have good accident figures so they copy the rules without understanding the process of risk assessment that underpins it. As a result, rules get implemented that in some cases are counterproductive, and in any case have no safety justification.

Last time I mentioned this in the context of the article, the response was "so we have to wait until someone dies before you'll do anything ?" Usually followed by the argument that "the rules" are all that's prevented <something> from happening already.

This is the "pink custard & elephants" argument. Man see his neighbour painting the fence with pink custard. "What's that for ?" he asks. Neighbour replies that it's to keep the elephants away. "But there are no elephants around here !" gets the response "See, it works."

I've even read a quote from a Health & Safety Commission member that is summed up by "We're fed up of H&S being used as an excuse not to do things".