A Frightening Quiz👻🎃
Tomorrow is Halloween. Some people will celebrate tomorrow night by watching scary movies, wearing costumes, and indulging in all sorts of treats. We thought we might send out a scary quiz to balance out those treats. This week’s quiz will focus on things that often frighten us at SCM. What scares us? Worker fatalities. Each of the questions focuses on a worker fatality that was reported to OSHA this past year, taken from this OSHA site. How would you have prevented these fatalities? The answers to the questions are our suggestions.
1. A carpenter named Frankenstein fell a little more than 10 feet off the roof he was working on. How would you have prevented his fall?
A. Train the worker to work safely.
B. Have the worker wear a personal fall arrest system (PFAS).
C. Provide a safe working platform, like a scaffold or manlift.
D. Give the worker the right tools to use.
E. All the above.
F. A, B and C are better suggestions.
2. A tree trimmer named Freddy was electrocuted when he contacted an electrical power line. How would you have prevented this electrocution?
A. Provide the worker with tools that cannot conduct electricity.
B. Contact the electrical utility company to deenergize the lines near where the tree trimming was happening.
C. Empower the worker to stop work if they feel it is hazardous.
D. Make sure the worker wears his hard hat while working.
E. All the above.
F. A, B and C are better suggestions.
3. A worker named Michael M. fell off a stair landing that did not have a guardrail and the landing was partially obstructed. How would you have prevented this fall?
A. Put a warning sign on the stairwell, tell workers that there is no guardrail.
B. Put up a guardrail following the requirements of 29 CFR Part 1910.29.
C. Remove the obstruction from the landing, to allow for easy passage.
D. Train employees how to use the stairs.
E. All the above.
F. B and C are better suggestions.
4. A packaging machine required repairs. An untrained worker named Jason fell into the machine and was crushed. How would you have prevented this incident? (Note: this is a trick question, there were multiple hazards involved.)
A. Train all workers about the hazards of falls.
B. Require workers to lock out machinery before making repairs and train them in lock out procedures.
C. Place signage on the machine to warn employees of the hazards.
D. Place guards around the areas of the machine that employees might fall into.
E. All the above.
F. B and C are better suggestions.
Discussion Challenge
Gather your coworkers for some Halloween fun. Start a conversation with this question: What safety concerns in our workplace scare you? How could we make it safer?
Answers:
1.     F
2.     F
3.     E
4.     E – according to citations issued, all the suggested answers were preventable issues leading to the incident.
