A Must Read For Every Safety Pro: Horizon Safety Breakdown
The New York Times has published a fascinating article, not focusing on the blowout preventer, but what happened on the Horizon during the minutes before and after the exploding that left 11 people dead and many others injured. If you are a safety professional, this article is a must read! Not only is it well written, it outlines some things that might not be considered when a catastrophic crisis is under way.
A few of the highlights include:
- Training for rudimentary failures, vs. catastrophic failures
- Break down of evacuation procedures
- Unclear understanding of what is considered an escalation that merits engaging the next level of safety measures.
- Uncertainty about warning indicators because they can be effected by other influences (e.g. things that lead to them to be ignored)
These are just a few things that would be helpful for safety professionals to review and think about. The article purports that the sinking of the Horizon was not “destined” to happen if some of the safety measures had been considered instead of ignored.
