Monday, May 21, 2018

Why the delay in posting incidents?


We thought we owed to our readers to tell you why there has been a delay in posting. It is not because we have not found incidents. We wish that was the case. But, as we have traveled the globe speaking to thousands of workers about the importance of safety we commonly state that editing this blog is the hardest thing we do. It truly is. We never thought having the knowledge of what is occurring in our industry would be such a burden. It is not that our industry is overtly dangerous. Our industry is very large and plants are spread throughout the globe. But having the knowledge of what is occurring has been difficult to shoulder. 

When we started 5 years ago we never imagine how difficult it is to post these incidents. For us, we are the type of individuals who where our hearts on our sleeves. What has confounded us is our ability not to forget the workers' names, pictures, stories. Even though we do not post the workers' names we remember them regardless when we read the original news article. We can close our eyes and see the individual faces that were posted in the news media articles or tv news videos flash before us. With every post involving a fatality an additional photo is tattooed into our memory. We remember the gut wrenching stories. The worker who was on vacation but came in to assist with specific task. The workers who were weeks away from retirement. The worker who was on the job for only a few weeks. The worker who took a shortcut that resulted in the death of his coworkers. The supervisor who felt the task was too dangerous for his workers and was killed doing that task. The quotes from the wives and husbands who lost a spouse at work. The quotes of the deceased workers' children The stories never ever end. We remember the quotes, we remember the stories. 

We are sharing our feelings not for you to feel sorry for us. But for you to understand that even though we do not post the workers' names on incidents that involve an injury or fatality. They are human just like you. We argue all the time if omitting the worker's name is correct. Because we fear that without information about the worker it leaves the reader without the magnitude of what a worker's injury or death actually means to their family, friends, and coworkers.  

We made this blog anonymous because it wasn't about us per se . It was about trying to bring awareness to these incidents to prevent recurrence. Many know who the editors are, so be it. We are humble by the kind words when someone finds out what we do. We pray that we can reach one person. We can prevent one incident, one injury or fatality. Then this has been worth it. 

We'll post some incidents later in the week. 

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