Ignoring the obvious

TCC GROUP 'ONSITE SAFE'
In a recent audit I did onsite I found the most amazing overlooking of basic safety precautions and regulations.These related to confined spaces sentry duties and logs of entry not being arranged or done whilst a person working has entered.No one had challenged this action or thought this a serious breach as the entrance and ventilation to the tank seemed adequate and a large visible entry was available.It seemed to give the impression that all precautions were not required and the hazards faced were negligible.all this happened with a crew that normally was very vigilant of safety requirements.So what happened?There were other more minor breaches as well.The ignoring of the hazard presented by not monitoring the confined space(oh I forgot to mention also the gas testers were not near entrance of the tank space because the alarms would go off with the high thinners contenmts in tank potentially...or so the excuse went...meaning that LELs that the gas tester could measure were not being monitored.)So what was happerning in there minds.I noted that the perceptions of risk and hazard were very low in their perception(i.e. amongst the crew of 4).All crew were a little tired,affected a little by heat in the sense that they were feeling it a little...and seemed very casual to their task and observance of usual safety checks and hazard identification.What part does fatigue play as to plain old irresponsibility.Who should be correcting and looking into these situations a little deeper ?does boredom and disengagement with the job play a significant part in such situations...what can companies and teams do to guard against such circumstances? The following highlights some of the approaches that can be taken.
http://www.ohsrep.org.au/index.cfm?section=34&category=34&viewmode=content&contentid=104

Link: http://onsitesafe.blogspot.com/