[SystemSafety] Hazard analysis and The Vinci Massacre

[paul_e.bennett at topmail.co.uk]

On 13/01/2016 at 4:08 AM, "Les Chambers" <les at chambers.com.au> wrote:
>
>Hi 
>
>Watching the HBO series: True Detectives (season 2, episode 4), it 
>struck me
>that the following eight minute scene would be an excellent warmup 
>for a
>hazard analysis session. 
>
>It depicts a day that starts well but just doesn't pan out the way 
>our
>heroes planned.
>
> 
>
>Refer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roi-mL1eUM0
>
> 
>
>Pay particular attention to the last minute, beautifully 
>dramatised as only
>Hollywood can.
>
>And ask yourself, do you ever want to be in that situation because 
>you
>didn't put enough time into figuring out what could go wrong and 
>what you
>could do about it?

Taking this scene out of context leaves some questions about what 
they might have done by way of a HAZOP before they began their 
operational task. It appears not to have been adequate enough to the
task and may have left them to undermanned for carrying out the task.
They obviously knew there was the potential for being fired upon and
did not seem to have stopped long enough before proceeding to make
the necessary observations about the situation before going ahead.

I dealt with a lot of electrically powered equipment in cabinets and 
even though I always knew there were going to be no exposed 
connections, I always instructed the apprentices I was responsible
for that when they open the doors they stand back, and have a good 
look around the interior of the cabinet for any problems before they
approached for the task they were there to undertake.

Observation is the first thing that you should always use to assess
whether even the most carefully laid out plan of action is safe to 
proceed with. If you spot an unexpected hazard you should always
retreat back to safety and sit down and think out how to properly
mitigate that before you carry on.

The company I was working for did not castigate anyone who stopped
a job proceeding if they had concerns over the safety of the situation
and the culture was accepting of the need to be sure that everyone was 
on-side about the mitigations in place to deal with any hazards identified.

We even had a form for unexpected hazards identified, during working on
equipment, that would cause a pause in the work while you resolved how 
to handle them (which then had to be signed off by a supervisor before 
you could proceed). One of the ways we were getting to our "Zero Injured
Persons" target (and succeeding).

Regards

Paul E. Bennett IEng MIET
Systems Engineer

-- 
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Paul E. Bennett IEng MIET.....<email://Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk>
Forth based HIDECS Consultancy.............<http://www.hidecs.co.uk>
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