I’ll never forget the day I looked death in the eye.
I was in the process of an inspection and had gone into the cooling tunnel on a mezzanine that enclosed some new equipment. It was 5:00 a.m. and there was no one around.
As the enclosure door slammed behind me, I was initially filled with dread as I realized the inside doorknob had not been installed. However, taking a glance around, I realized there was another door about 80 feet away. I got the information I needed, pushed the door interlock reset button on the opposite side of the enclosure to the second exit, walked quickly across before the reset timed out, pushed the door open, and started to step through…
But there was a problem. A big problem.
As my head and left foot broke the plane of the doorway, I realized there was no platform, no staircase, and, as unbelievable as it may sound, no warning on the door stating that it led to a 12-foot fall to a concrete floor below.
I was less than a millisecond away from death!
I can imagine the headlines the next day: “Certified Safety Professional Steps to his Death.”
How ironic that I was performing a safety role at the time.
Here’s the thing: Multiple people knew about the door to death. In fact, it had even been identified as a safety issue that needed attention. Yet nothing had been done.
The irony that I had personally developed a tool to ensure that these issues were never allowed to slip through the cracks was not lost on me.
Had this client been utilizing my simple tool, it would have been recorded in the system, ranked according to the risk (CATASTROPHIC!), prioritized (TOP!), assigned to a specific person, and tracked through to completion.
There is no excuse for failing to use tools of this nature. They save lives.
This application can prevent people like me from ever having a brush with death (or worse) again.
It improves behaviors and fundamentally transforms the safety culture to make safe practices everyone’s collective responsibility. In essence, safety becomes standard practice.
Having been within seconds of my death, I am passionate about transforming how safety is managed within organizations.
If you would like to start on your path to integrating safe work practices throughout your operation by trying this extremely easy-to-use tool for free, please click on the "Contact" link above.
You’ll soon be on your way to a brighter safety future: Less frustration with managing safety and more employees actively assisting you to prevent the pain and suffering of unnecessary accidents.
Just take a few minutes to check out the tool, and you will be on your way to reducing accidents with the use of an affordable easy-to-use tool!
Sincerely,
Mark Dunwoody PE, CSP, CIH
