EDITORIAL: Promoting a culture of safety

Fatalities on construction sites are on the increase with Thursday's death of two men working on a pipe-laying project in the Barbican area adding to the statistics. These latest deaths have not only drawn attention to the hazards faced by construction workers but have shown up the inadequacy of our rescue response apparatus.

Fresh in our memories is another incident during the Nicole rains, when construction workers in upper St Andrew were buried under mud after a shed collapsed on them. That incident prompted an investigation by the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation and we expect a similar response to this latest tragedy.

That Barbican Road project being undertaken by independent contractors on behalf of the National Water Commission (NWC) should have come in for greater scrutiny since Nicole, when parts of the road buckled. We have not yet heard whether the supervisory agencies had demanded a safety audit or what lessons were learnt from that earlier incident. However, the quality of the response to what may seem like a minor incident is often the determining factor in preventing the escalation of a problem. So, did the collapse of that road prompt the tightening up of safety measures?

These incidents are pointing to the need for a nationwide review of security on all worksites, but particularly those that could have a potential impact on members of the public. This is especially important since major islandwide roadwork is scheduled to begin in a matter of days.

Recklessness

If the truth be told, Jamaicans do not have a good attitude towards accident prevention and often disregard potential hazards. It is evident in the recklessness on our roads, including the flagrant disregard for pedestrians, as well as the improper transportation of goods, and our propensity to disobey safety instructions such as crossing waterways and fords during flooding. We are really not good at recognising hazards and trying to prevent accidents.

Risk assessment is a key component in safety standards. But the ability of unskilled, often illiterate persons, to make a proper judgement of lurking danger is limited. We can only blame our education system for turning out men and women who are not equipped to function effectively in society.

How are we going to build a culture of safety in our country? There is the obvious need for a public-awareness campaign which will hopefully teach people how to make their own safety risk assessments. We should also demand that the academic community support the training of safety engineers and promote the development of safety skills as key disciplines.

All of this ties into concerns raised by Contractor General Greg Christie about the bona fides of persons who are often properly registered as contractors. What does it take to become a contractor? Do they have the requisite insurance and competence?

Clear conclusion

Many of our contractors have earned a bad reputation for shoddy work. In their leak detection and pipe-laying works, contractors employed to both the National Works Agency and the NWC have left roads unpaved or unevenly paved and exposed manholes. It is a clear conclusion to draw that these public-sector agencies have no clear guidelines for achieving safety. If they do, they have been negligent in enforcing them.

Accidents will happen. However, much can be done to reduce the probability of accidents. It is the responsibility of the Government and industry players to promote prevention and preparedness systems. The maturity of a country's safety culture can be always be judged by the degree of safety it pursues.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.