Safety Lessons for Crane Users from Deepwater Horizon
A recent blog post by David Vaucher MBA, MENG an oil and gas industry data analyst, about the movie Deepwater Horizon, is worth reading and using in safety training. The movie highlights the fact that many individuals attempted to stop the job, but were overridden for the sake of the schedule.
A basic tenet of the oil and gas industry – “Stop the Job” – was neglected with disastrous consequences on Deepwater Horizon
As Mr. Vaucher writes:
“In no way was this the only factor leading to the blowout. However, it does distill so many of the behaviors that contributed:
- Everyone attempting to follow a fundamental tenet of the oil & gas industry – “Stop the Job” – was silenced in the name of making up time.
- At best, Vidrine’s input was a hypothesis to be tested, not a conclusion on which to act. There was no rigorous follow-up to determine what would have to be true (or false) for this hypothesis to hold.
- Most significantly, ignoring the potential downsides explaining away the data because nothing terrible had happened with previous wells (a great article on Deepwater Horizon goes more in-depth into this topic of “risk-creep” here)”
Early in the movie, Kurt Russell, who plays Jimmy Harrell (the highest ranking onsite employee of Transocean, the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon) is recognized with a safety award.
The irony is that the corporate players were more concerned about the photo opp when delivering the award than in listening to the myriad of safety concerns employees were expressing.
In contrast, empowering workers to recognize and act on hazards is a basic tenant of crane safety.
When it comes to safe crane setup, it takes very little time to properly use outrigger pads or crane pads. Here are 10 tips that will guide you to a successful crane setup.