Extracts from the Callide investigation, involving a significant boiler pressure event. Thanks to @wade n for flagging this report. Not going into the event details – so check out the report. Extracts: ·        “The incident reflects a systemic failure to manage both technical and organisational risks, highlighting the critical need for integrated system reviews, clearly defined… Continue reading Failures of critical controls, risk normalisation, and weak governance: Callide investigation report findings

How can we motivate–or even design for–more desirable, safer decisions on health, safety and life, and disincentivise riskier decisions? This episodes explores Gerald Wilde’s four tactics of motivating safer behaviour, from his book ‘Target Risk 3’. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/40zBw6nzY04Fzvp77zWcnB?si=zDd6ZxY4SqyhRlWJ2oyzZw Shout me a coffee (one-off or monthly recurring)

This article discusses some of the mistakes or assumptions about human performance in complex environments. Extracts: ·        “Humans are not great at assessing risk. Engineers tend to be an optimistic lot, ready to solve any problem by relying on their technical skills and experience” ·        And while it’s “incredibly tempting, in the relative calm of process hazard… Continue reading “We’ll know we have a problem, and we’ll fix it!” – Overestimating human response as a safeguard

Was fatigue a contributor to the Titanic disaster? Quite possibly. This study draws on several sources to try and piece together the probable effects of sleep loss (** sources not including Celine Dion or paintings of French girls). Don’t read into this too much, but just a fun little study. Extracts: ·        “The Titanic’s lookouts, more… Continue reading Watchkeeping, sleep loss, and circadian misalignment in the Titanic disaster

The Role of ESG Performance in Reducing Occupational Accidents: The Moderating Effect of Board Diversity This explored the links between ESG performance and occupational accidents, and the effect of board diversity. 211 matched pairs of Taiwanese companies were included (those reporting vs those not reporting accident data), with a total sample of 422 firms. Extracts:… Continue reading The Role of ESG Performance in Reducing Occupational Accidents: The Moderating Effect of Board Diversity

What factors predict the use of higher-order risk controls? This study unpacks the predictors via use of HECA (High-Energy Control Assessment). Source: Oguz Erkal, E. D., Hallowell, M. R., Ghriss, A., & Bhandari, S. (2024). Predicting serious injury and fatality exposure using machine learning in construction projects. Journal of construction engineering and management, 150(3), 04023169. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Igc8IOGHSkKYShEaseDi4?si=6LcuSnjjSWiJEpS2Xzg19A… Continue reading E59: Predictors of the use of higher-order risk controls

Next Safe As ep line-up all recorded and ready to rock. Also, the video is a janky practice run, and not-so-subtle clue, to the new ‘neighbourhood’ that Safe As is moving into. (…Been a while since I had to edit videos. For those interested – C64 recorded on an emulator because I couldn’t be bothered… Continue reading Safe As – upcoming ep schedule and new format teaser

This compared AI performance to orthopaedic surgeons within clinical practice and training. It’s a systematic review with 16 studies being included. As far as I can, most (all?) studies used ChatGPT 3.5 and 4 (so note the older models). And, yes, pitting surgeons against AI isn’t the ideal use-case (e.g. compared to co-agents/HAIT) Extracts: ·        “ChatGPT… Continue reading Artificial intelligence fails to outperform orthopaedic surgeons: A systematic review