Slide 4 of 28
Notes:
To review the actions taken to establish the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center’s behavior-based safety process, we need to realize that our process is not built on reducing injuries; but is built on reducing the probability of an employee sustaining an injury or illness.
When behavior-based safety is discussed with colleagues, it is quite often mentioned that behavior-based safety is a means of reducing the number of employee injuries and illnesses. At this point in time, I personally have not found in my literature search a behavior-based safety process that will eliminate incidents. With this in mind, I believe that we can reduce the probability of an individual sustaining an injury or illness through a behavior-based safety process.
Let us take into consideration the following scenario: Driver A will exit his/her driveway while driving to work each morning. At one end of Driver A’s block, there is no stop sign at the intersection for his/her direction of travel. There is a stop sign for cross traffic. The crossing motorist will be called vehicle B. The field of vision for vehicle B is limited due to trees and bushes at the intersection. Will Driver A be safer by slowing down as he/she approaches and travels through the intersection? The obvious answer will be yes. The possibility of Driver A doing this is minimal. If we were to broach the question of being safer by slowing down and Driver A heeded this statement “X” times per week for “X” number of weeks, then we can conclude that we have reduced the probability of Driver A being a contributory element involved in an incident at this intersection, and have yet not completely averted unsafe behaviors not to mention any unsafe conditions.
One purpose of the SLAC behavior-based safety process is to identify the unsafe conditions and correct them.
