[BITList] Elfin safety

[HUGH]

In Saturday's Herald I read : "An accident in which a building worker .... was killed by a falling steel beam could have been averted, an inquest in Windsor rules yesterday. [He] was helping to place the beam at an incinerator plant.  The inquest jury said bolts on the beam had not been fitted correctly and the accident might not have happened had a plan been written for the work."   I don't really understand what the jury said but, even if it lost something in the telling,  bolts are fitted through holes or not fitted through holes - there is no middle way.  And, a "plan" for the work.  What happened to drawings?  I once wrote up a "plan" for a job I thought merited one.  This had nothing to do with safety, just efficiency, and it was ignored by the fitters, who "wrote" their own to good effect.  That was the only "plan" I ever wrote.  There's no substitute for skill and experience.  I was asked to do many a thing while with BI, but never a risk assessment prior to lifting out a top piston on a Doxford.  We avoided risk by not standing under the bloody thing on the sling, and trying very very hard to make sure we had the right lifting gear.

Hugh.

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