Safety – When all else fails

Gordon Masterton
23 April 2014

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Gordon Masterton discusses the impact of site deaths and says everyone should look at Kate’s Story and help save lives.

The UK construction industry has improved its safety performance immensely over the years. I’ve just read a paper justifying the establishment of the Standing Committee on Structural Safety (SCOSS) in 1974, not long before the start of my career. It said “More than 30 major structural failures have occurred during the past 10 years in Great Britain and the average number of deaths per year due to structural collapses was about six.” And, even more shockingly, “Between 1960 and 1967, the number of fatalities on construction sites fluctuated between 197 and 288 per year”. Construction killed more people than mining.

In 2012/13, the construction industry killed 39 of its workers. The improvement is entirely welcome but even one death is too many.

"The right response is to make it absolutely clear that everyone on the project, throughout the entire organisation, is diminished morally by the event and that everyone involved with the project has serious and committed intent that everything possible will be done to learn the hard won lessons." 

Almost every working week, a site somewhere in Britain is coping with the fallout from the death of a close colleague, a fellow worker, a friend, someone's loved one. Bereaved family members are of course the worst affected but the consequences reach much further. It's tough for sites to recover from a fatality; partly because they are now a much rarer occurrence than 50 years ago. Co-workers are hugely affected, perhaps to the extent of no longer wanting to be doing the same job.

Managers are affected too. Even for those with no direct line management responsibility, construction management teams will ask themselves whether they could have done more, whether they could have been clearer in explaining working procedures, or more passionate about safety, more visible on site, or just a better personal example to others.

All of these thoughts, and more, weigh heavily on everyone affected. Morale is reduced, and this inevitably impacts on the sense of goodwill around the project. It’s immediately harder to be proud to be part of it. It's a really difficult time.

What is the right response when all else has failed? Not easy, but there are some responses that would be plain wrong. One of those would be to blame the victim. Apart from the horrible impact on the family, this does nothing to reassure co-workers that everything possible will be done to ensure that the tragic incident never happens again. 

The right response is to make it absolutely clear that everyone on the project, throughout the entire organisation, is diminished morally by the event and that everyone involved with the project has serious and committed intent that everything possible will be done to learn the hard won lessons. Of course, cooperation with the investigation is a given, but there's even more than that at stake. Every death is avoidable. Every death has lessons to teach.

In some cases it may be possible to use the tragic event as an impactful lesson learned, subject to the support and permission of relatives. Charlie Morecraft does exactly that with his serious near miss. He has told his story many times in “Remember Charlie” and it’s a powerful learning experience.

There’s another one you may not be familiar with – Kate’s Story, now on Youtube. Her husband John worked for Jacobs when he was electrocuted by overhead lines. Kate, also with Jacobs, is brave enough to want to do her bit to help others avoid repeating John’s tragic outcome. Jacobs helped her produce a moving plea to others. Watch it. 44,000 others have already. It only takes 15 minutes of your time. It could save your life.

Gordon Masterton is Chairman of SCOSS, part of Structural-Safety.org